Second referendum campaign to seek support from Dales farmers

BREXIT ACTIVISTS will ask farmers to join their cause in a day of campaigning at Leyburn livestock auction this week.

The North Yorkshire for Europe group, which is backing the People’s Vote campaign, is calling for a fresh referendum to take place to allow the electorate to vote on whether to accept the terms of the Government’s Brexit deal with the European Union.

Its supporters will be at the Leyburn mart and in the town’s market square handing out leaflets and collecting signatures on Friday.

Richard Sadler, North Yorkshire for Europe organiser, said: “We chose to come to Leyburn because it’s an important centre for Dales communities who have farmed the land here in the same way for many generations.

“We know that a lot of farmers voted leave but like so many others they have been lied to over what Brexit would actually mean for them.”

The UK has been given a final deadline of November to reach an agreement on the terms of its withdrawal from the EU by Michel Barnier, the bloc’s chief negotiator, with the future of trade between Britain and the EU unresolved. More than 90 per cent of lamb and beef exports from the Yorkshire Dales goes to the EU and the National Farmers’ Union has warned that tariff-free, frictionless access to the European marketplace is crucial to farm livelihoods.

Prime Minister Theresa May has been unequivocal about the chances of any new Brexit referendum. Writing in

she said she will not “give in” to those calling for a second referendum”, and that “to ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy”.