Anti-Brexit campaigners descend on Westminster to demand second referendum
Thousands of anti-Brexit campaigners are expected to descend on central London today on the second anniversary of the referendum.
The People’s Vote march is due to start at 12pm today, as tens of thousands of people will walk from Pall Mall to Parliament Square as remainer groups continue to demand a second referendum on the final deal that is agreed with Brussels.
The march will finish outside Westminster, where speeches will be made by Tory rebel Anna Soubry, along side Labour MP David Lammy and Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable.
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Today’s demonstration is part of the “Summer of Action” of events which the People’s Vote umbrella group has organised across the country designed to sway the public in favour of a final vote on the Brexit deal.
It coincides with a number of senior pro-Brexit ministers putting more pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to not back down on delivering a hard Brexit deal.
In an article published by The Sun today, foreign secretary Boris Johnson warned the PM against a “soft, yielding and infinitely long” Brexit.
“Across the country I find people who – whatever they voted two years ago – just want us to get on and do it,” he wrote.
“They don’t want a half hearted Brexit. They don’t want some sort of hopeless compromise, some perpetual pushme-pullyou arrangement in which we stay half in and half out in a political no mans land – with no more ministers round the table in Brussels and yet forced to obey EU laws.”
This week, international trade secretary Liam Fox insisted the May was “not bluffing” when she says the government is willing to walk away from negotiations without a deal.
“The Prime Minister has always said no deal is better than a bad deal,” he told the BBC on Wednesday. “It is essential as we enter the next phase of the negotiations that the EU understands that and believes it. Our negotiating partners would not be wise if they thought our PM was bluffing.”
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