Daily Mail - 28.08.2019

Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Page 7

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LABOUR’S Brexit policy was thrown

into further chaos last night after

a senior shadow minister said

Jeremy Corbyn would campaign

for Remain under ‘any outcome’.

The stark comments by Sir Keir

Starmer, shadow Brexit secretary,

appeared to be directly at odds

with the Labour leader, who has

repeatedly refused to go so far.

Mr Corbyn has in the past only

said that his party would back

Remain against a Tory Brexit deal

or against a No Deal Brexit. He has

not said how the party would

campaign in a second referendum

if Labour got into power and

negotiated its own withdrawal

agreement with Brussels.

The Conservatives said that

Sir Keir’s comments showed

Labour was willing to use ‘any

excuse’ to ignore the result of the

2016 referendum.

Scheming:

From left, Sir Keir

Starmer, Valerie

Vaz, Jeremy

Corbyn and John

McDonnell ahead

of talks with party

leaders yesterday

Starmer says Corbyn will

support Remain whatever

abuse between those on different

sides of the Brexit argument.

The MPs said: ‘We agree that it

is worth holding a citizen’s forum

to see what can be done by bring-

ing people together... It could be

a helpful supplement to Parlia-

mentary democracy at a time

when Parliament has struggled

to reach resolution and when dis-

trust in politics has grown.’

They added that they hoped

the forum – to be launched

before the Brexit deadline of

October 31 – would influence the

politics of Brexit.

Archbishop Welby said the

invitation to chair a forum was

an ‘unexpected privilege’, add-

ing that gatherings of the kind

proposed could ‘open the way

for careful deliberation’.

‘I am honoured to be

approached and would be will-

ing to accept in principle, sub-

ject to some conditions which

have not yet been met,’ he said.

The Archbishop added it was

indispensable ‘that the forum

should not be a Trojan Horse

intended to delay or prevent

Brexit in any particular form’.

It must, he said, be open to all

possible outcomes.

The Archbishop added that

although members would not be

politicians, the forum should

have cross-party support.

But Mr Duncan Smith said:

‘This assembly is designed to

destabilise Boris Johnson’s posi-

tion. I am sorry the Archbishop

has chosen to support it.’

He added that he had been

disappointed by suggestions at

the weekend – but not repeated

in the MPs’ letter to the Arch-

bishop – that the forum would

gather in Coventry Cathedral.

The cathedral became a sym-

bol of international reconcilia-

tion after the destruction of the

city in a bombing raid in 1940.

‘The idea that we can compare

Brexit with the Second World

THE Archbishop of Can-

terbury accepted an invi-

tation from leading

Remainer MPs yesterday

to head a ‘citizens forum’

on Brexit.

The Most Reverend Justin

Welby said he would do so on

the condition that the gath-

ering should not be used ‘to

delay or prevent Brexit in any

particular form’.

The acceptance by Archbishop

Welby, who voted Remain in the

2016 referendum, plunged the

Church of England into the bat-

tle over Europe for the first time

and risked identifying it with the

cause of stopping a No Deal exit

from the EU.

Last night, high-profile pro-

Brexit Tories condemned his

decision to take charge of the

forum. Former Tory leader Iain

Duncan Smith said: ‘I am sorry

he has chosen to do this. Brexit

By Steve Doughty

Social Affairs Correspondent

‘Unexpected

privilege’

Invitation: Archbishop Welby

Welby will lead

‘citizens forum’

• but won’t help

to stop Brexit

‘It should not be

a Trojan Horse’

is not a terrible thing which will

tear society apart. It is a political

debate, and no more.’

The Archbishop’s interest in

taking a public role in the Brexit

row was revealed at the week-

end by independent MP Frank

Field, a prominent Anglican and

former Labour member, who

backed Brexit in the referendum

but is against No Deal.

However, yesterday, the other

five senior MPs behind the invi-

tation went public.

All are active Remainers and

they include former Conserva-

tive Cabinet minister Dame

Caroline Spelman, one of the

‘Gaukeward Squad’ Tories plot-

ting to halt No Deal. She is also

the Second Church Estates

Commissioner, the CofE’s

spokesman in the Commons.

The others are Labour’s Hilary

Benn and Yvette Cooper, Lib

Dem Norman Lamb, and Scot-

tish Nationalist Angus MacNeil.

Their invitation to the Arch-

bishop appealed to his repeated

call for an end to hatred and

War in which 60million people

died is appalling,’ he said.

The Coventry idea may have

been used to draw in Archbishop

Welby, who was ordained in the

cathedral in 1993 and was head

of its reconciliation project for

five years during the 2000s.

Under his leadership, the CofE

has frequently taken issue with

Tory prime ministers over eco-

nomic and welfare policies.

And in the past, the Archbishop

has associated Brexit with rac-

ism and hatred. He told the

House of Lords after the 2016 ref-

erendum that ‘it is essential... to

challenge the attacks, the xeno-

phobia and the racism that seem

to have been felt to be accepta-

ble at least for a while.’

Before the 2015 election, the

Church wrote to followers saying

there was ‘an enduring argument

for continuing to build struc-

tures of trust and co-operation

between the nations of Europe’.

What don’t they

understand about

democracy?

SANDBROOK

SEE

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