OXFORDSHIRE business leaders and experts on the EU should be invited to discuss the impact of Brexit at the county council, a leading Liberal Democrats has urged.

Richard Webber, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group at the county council, will plead with councillors to agree to the event taking place.

He will tell councillors that the impact of Brexit – ‘good and bad, short term and long term’ – could be ‘mitigated’ by holding it.

In a motion that will be presented at a meeting tomorrow, he will say: “This council believes that with Brexit fast approaching, it is both sensible and realistic that the potential risks and impact of Brexit on Oxfordshire – good and bad, short term and long term – are fully understood as far as is possible and aired in public together with detailed discussion on how these impacts can be mitigated.”

He will ask the council to organise and then run a public conference this autumn where ‘experts and leaders in business, science, engineering, education, social services and other areas’ could be invited give their views.

Mr Webber, the councillor for Sutton Courtenay and Marcham, was due to ask his colleagues to agree to staging the meeting in July – but the discussion was delayed.

The council instead decided to hold a meeting over the appointment of its new joint chief executive, Yvonne Rees.

She will be the chief executive of both the county council and Cherwell District Council.

Liberal Democrats across the county are backing a People’s Vote – which also got significant support from Labour city councillors.

Just over half of all of Labour’s city councillors wrote to the Oxford Mail supporting a second vote on the eventual Brexit deal in July.

The Green Party’s leader on the city council, Craig Simmons, proposed a motion –which was passed – seeking support for a People’s Vote at the authority.

Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, was one of the most prominent backers for the People’s Vote when it was launched in April.

Last month, the Centre for Cities thinktank said Oxford will be one of the hardest cities hit by Brexit.

It said it is the fourth most dependent town or city in the country on EU workers.

Last month Susan Brown, the city council’s leader, said she was working to secure a ‘strong future’ for Oxford alone and within the wider Oxford-Cambridge corridor.

That is likely to see billions of Government money poured into it over forthcoming decades as it looks to boost links between the country’s premier university cities.

An example of the investment will be the £3.5bn Oxford-Cambridge expressway.

In what was blow to the UK Government’s plan last week, the EU’s chief negotiator told a Labour MP that it was ‘crystal clear’ that its proposals over a future trade deal were ‘dead’.

Stephen Kinnock said: “I can tell you absolutely, unequivocally, without a shadow of a doubt that Chequers is dead in the water.

“[Michel] Barnier made it crystal clear that Chequers is completely unacceptable to the European Union.”

Brexit secretary Dominic Raab asked Mr Kinnock in the Commons: “Can I just check he said ‘dead in the water’?”

He said: “Les propositions sont mortes.”

Mr Raab replied: “OK.”