The Archbishop of York, together with the Archbishop of Canterbury, has urged people to vote “hopefully and compassionately” in the General Election.

In an open letter to the Church Times, Rowan Williams and John Sentamu called for a renewal of civic values and virtues in Britain.

They wrote: “If the General Election is to be more than a celebrity contest, we must vote with our values.

“We must be clear about what we think is involved in being a citizen, and so what we can expect of and for citizens in this country now.

“Our society needs a rebirth of civic values and virtues – which is why we believe it is important both to vote.”

The Archbishops pointed out that many people in the UK were financially better off than they had ever been. “The deepest challenge is how the wealth we possess collectively is to become a real ‘common wealth’, wealth that serves a whole population, not just the powerful and privileged,” they said.