NOT DONE YET!
Stop Brexit activist vows to battle on
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NTI-BREXIT protester Steve Bray is a familiar face outside Parliament.
Known as “Stop Bexit guy” or the “man who shouts stop Brexit”, Welshman Steve Bray is regularly seen on the background of the news.
Shouts of “Stop Brexit” and “Revoke Article 50” have been heard through his megaphone for the last two years. He’s harangued highranking politicians, photobombed their press calls and hijacked their TV interviews since September 2017.
In Thursday’s General Election, Steve, from Port Talbot, stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate in Cynon Valley.
But he lost with 949 votes to 15,533, making Labour candidate Beth Winter the constituency’s new MP.
Boris Johnson told Remainers to “put a sock in it” on Friday following the Conservatives Party’s biggest win since the 1980s.
He said: “And I say respectfully, I say respectfully to our stentorian friend in the blue 12 star hat, ‘That’s it, time to put a sock in the megaphone and give everybody some peace’.”
So what are Steve’s plans now the General Election-winning conservatives embark on their promise to get Brexit done?
Steve isn’t giving up hope just yet. “When I first saw the exit poll, I was hoping it was wrong, even though I know it rarely is,” he said. “It turned out to be fact, but we still haven’t left the European Union. There is still fight left within the remain movement.”
He said one of his main motivations for keeping his remain hopes up was to keep freedom of movement, which allows Britons to work in any of the 27 other member states without needing a permit and vice versa.
“Freedom of movement is so important, and with a Conservative government that’s all going to be lost – and for what? Our leave campaign will have to change into one that will get us back into the EU.”
Steve said he doesn’t believe it’s possible to simply “get Brexit done” and that there would be a lot of work needed to get there.
Despite Steve’s disappointment at the result, he is determined to keep campaigning for Britain to stay in the EU, but thinks there needs to be a change of tactic.
“I’m going to be at Parliament this week because then they are going into Christmas recess,” he said. “There are hundreds and hundreds of remain groups in Britain, now we all need to come together under one umbrella and fight to stay.”
After standing as Cynon Valley’s Lib Dem candidate, Steve travelled back to London where he is currently based.
On Thursday Steve voted at the same polling station as Boris Johnson and said he was disappointed to have missed him while there with his antiBrexit placards.
He criticised the Prime Minister for the claims he made during his campaign, which he believed to be untrue.
Steve said: “It’s a very dark day for Britain. To get to this state in the 21st century is beyond belief.
“If we do leave the EU, I’m going to campaign to get us back in.
“To everybody who is feeling down and disbanded at the moment, try to look at the positives and campaign to remain.”