670,000 on march to stop Brexit

HUNDREDS of thousands of pro-Europe campaigners gathered in central London yesterday to call for a People’s Vote aimed at preventing Britain’s exit from the EU.

Organisers estimated 670,000 attended the march, which set off from Park Lane at midday and ended with a rally in Parliament Square.

London mayor Sadiq Khan and celebrity chef Delia Smith spoke at the event. Other celebrities who joined the crowds included actors Andy Serkis and Gemma Chan.

Serkis said: “The will of the people is now, it’s people expressing their points of view in a more informed state.”

Chan, who starred in Humans and Crazy Rich Asians, held a banner which read: “Even Baldrick had a f****** plan.”

Labour MSP Kezia Dugdale was also at the event. Dugdale said people “from all across Scotland” marched in London to show their support for a People’s Vote. “Many of those taking part are young voters who face missing out if the UK leaves the EU,” she added. “I am marching for generations to come.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon sent a supportive video message. She said recently SNP MPs would back a new Brexit referendum and oppose anything short of staying in the single market and customs union. Scotland voted in favour staying in the EU by 62 per cent to 38 per cent.

Patrick Harvie and Maggie Chapman, co-conveners of the Scottish Greens, also backed a People’s Vote at their party’s conference in Glasgow yesterday.

Chapman said she is “very much in favour of the principle of a People’s Vote”. Harvie told delegates they would have the chance to join the campaign for a People’s Vote in a motion to be debated at the conference.

“Like Maggie, I can’t stay neutral on that question,” he said. “Even if it is a narrow window of opportunity to bring that vote about, we’ve already said as a party that it looks like being the only way, the only possibility of stopping Brexit.”

Prime Minister Theresa May, who campaigned for Remain but is opposed to a People’s Vote, visited an arts exhibition in her constituency of Maidenhead yesterday as the march took place in London.

Titled Maidenhead And Me, it featured work by locals with different perspectives of the town. One of the works was called Bridge Over Troubled Brexit Waters and depicted May carrying a cross over a river of bad Brexit headlines.