Archbishop Justin Welby today said he is praying and trusting in God for the right leaders to move the UK forward following Britain's shock vote to leave the EU last week.

"I think one of the greatest blessings I've relished in the United Kingdom is that we change leadership by discussion, by robust, vigorous even pretty venomous discussion at times, but by discussion, not by other means that you see round the world," Archbishop Welby told Sky News.

"Yes, there is competition in the two parties. We pray, we trust that we will have the leaders we need, and we know that in a democracy, if they aren't – we change them."

The Archbishop, along with other faith leaders, has been vocal about the tumultuous political climate in the UK in recent weeks.

Ahead of the referendum vote on June 23 he announced that he would be voting to remain in the EU, though he admitted there was "no official Christian or Church line on which way to vote".

"In no sense do I have some divine hot line to the right answer. We each have to make up our own minds," Welby added in an article for the Mail on Sunday. "But for my part, based on what I have said and on what I have experienced I shall vote to remain."

Following the news that the Leave campaign had won by a narrow majority last Friday morning, the Archbishop released a joint statement with John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, urging the UK to respond to the news with "unity, hope and generosity".

Then in a letter to The Times today, Welby, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols warned against the growing amount of "racial hatred" in the wake of the vote.

Welby's comments to Sky News follow the apparent collapse of leadership in both the Conservative and Labour parties.

There are currently five candidates for the Tory leadership after Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation, while Labour's Jeremy Corbyn may be facing an attempted coup.