Archbishop warns Brexit can only be a success if we have an 'insults ceasefire'

The Archbishop of Canterbury has asked MPs to have a ceasefire on pejorative language towards one another after a day of vicious Brexit arguments lead to a crushing defeat for Theresa May.

Justin Welby warned that if the pejorative language continues, it will be difficult to make a success of leaving the European Union.

He told BBC's Today Programme: "We go back a hundred and three years, we find Christmas 1914 there was a ceasefire. It would be very good to have a ceasefire from insult and the use of pejorative terms about people at this time.

"As a country we have a future ahead of  us, we made a decision about Brexit, that is clear, both sides are saying that.

"How we do that is a question for robust political argument but there is a difference between disagreeing and personalised attacks on people, because if we are going to make a success of Brexit - and that is possible to do -  we should make a success of it, it offers opportunities as well as challenges, then we need a leadership that is united in their attitude to the future even if divided in policy.

"Therefore we need reconciliation and unity."

During Wednesday's Brexit debate, both sides fired off furious insults at one another.

Remainer Ken Clarke called his Eurosceptic colleagues "desperately paranoid", while John Baron claimed that  the “condescending” Mr Clarke wanted the Commons to be no more than a “council chamber of the European Parliament.”

After the vote, exchanges became even more heated, and Nadine Dorries called for her colleagues who voted against Theresa May to be deselected and never be allowed to stand to be a Tory MP ever again.

She also blasted her fellow Conservative MPs as "self-indulgent" and chided them, tweeting: "I’ve been a rebel myself, but never when a Marxist government was knocking at the door."

Ms Dorries also wrote that the rebels were "high as kites on the vapour of their own self importance."

Nick Boles MP did not appear to approve of this approach, tweeting: "I voted with the Government tonight and wasn't persuaded by the arguments of my colleagues who rebelled. But I respect their position and deplore the accusations of treachery and calls for deselection. Nothing could be less British."