Tory Leadership Hopeful Rory Stewart Names The Person He Thinks Can Solve Brexit Deadlock

3 June 2019, 10:30 | Updated: 3 June 2019, 10:46

Rory Stewart told this Brexit voter that the only way the UK could leave the EU is with a deal.

The Conservative leadership candidate was challenged by a caller on why he had ruled out a no-deal Brexit during a phone-in with Nick Ferrari.

And Mr Stewart insisted any candidate who claimed that we could renegotiate the Brexit deal or leave without one is simply not telling the truth.

He said: "We're not going to be able to leave with no deal is the truth that nobody is sharing.

"Parliament is not going to pass no-deal. The quickest, mot sensible way of leaving the European Union is to do it through a deal that works for the economy.

"They're not going to renegotiate the deal, so anybody who pretends they are going to go to Brussels and renegotiate a new deal is fooling you.

"We live in a parliamentary democracy and parliament has made it clear that it has no majority for no deal. So we're stuck. We're stuck between a referendum that instructed us to leave and a completely different democratic system which is blocking it.

"Which is why the key is not to talk about going to Brussels, the key is to talk about how to unlock parliament. How do you deal with an instruction from the people on one hand and a block in parliament."

Mr Stewart's idea is a "Brexit Assembly", a jury of normal people selected from across the UK who would take expert testimony on Brexit and come up with a recommendation to parliament.

"This unlocks the tension," he claimed. "It's people who are not party political."

He even came up with a name for someone to chair to assembly: "Somebody like the Archbishop of Canterbury."

Nick pointed out Justin Welby was minded against Brexit, but Mr Stewart insisted: "It needs to be an independent mediator. I chose the Archbishop because he's negotiated an enormous amount when he was Archbishop of Coventry in Nigeria. He understands how to do mediation."

Listeners were impressed with his idea.