At 11 am on Saturday 14 April two dozen Cambridge Stays supporters gathered in Market Square for a group photo and quick briefing before fanning out across the city with leaflets calling for a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal*. This was part of the largest ever joint grassroots anti-Brexit National Action Day, with over three hundred events taking place all across the UK, calling for the people of the UK to have a vote on the Brexit deal, with the option to remain a member of the EU if the deal isn’t as good as EU membership.
The People’s Vote campaign is organised by Open Britain, the European Movement and Britain for Europe, with the backing of several other national pro-EU organisations, and on the launch day 500,000 leaflets were handed out in villages, towns and cities the length and breadth of the country, in areas that voted both Remain and Leave.
In Cambridge another dozen supporters joined us in the afternoon, and our stall on Market Square was kept busy all day…by the time we finished at 3 pm we had almost run out of leaflets! One of our members also held a People’s Vote stall in Newmarket, the first time such a stall has been held there since the referendum in 2016, where they had a very positive reaction from many of those they spoke with.
Speaking before the start of the action day Paul Browne, Chair of Cambridge Stays, said:
The countries of Europe must work closely together to meet the social, political and environmental challenges of the 21st century. Sadly, we see figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and UKIP leader Nigel Farage, as well as companies like Cambridge Analytica, seeking to divide and undermine the EU and the democratic world in general so they can exploit the resulting political and economic chaos.
It’s great to be out campaigning in Cambridge alongside dozens of pro-European activists, speaking with local people about making sure they get a say on the Brexit deal. With Brexit turning out to be much more complicated and politically and economically costly than people were told during the referendum, we are demanding a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal.”
We’d like to thank the nearly forty campaigners who joined us for the launch of the People’s Vote campaign in Cambridge and Newmarket on Saturday 14 April, you made it our best action day yet!
The following day, Sunday 15 April, about 1,200 people – almost all committee members and local organisers from about 100 different grassroots groups – packed into the Electric Ballroom in Camden for the official launch event of the People’s Vote campaign, which was widely reported in national news media, including the BBC, Independent, Times, Telegraph, and Guardian.
You can watch a video of highlights from the launch event on Youtube, and listen to interviews with the team behind the People’s Vote on a Sixteen Million Rising special broadcast.
* The “final deal” refers to the deal with the EU that the Government has said it will put before Parliament in October 2018. Obviously, given the short time available between now and October, this will not be anywhere close to being a comprehensive deal, but the phrase “final deal” is being used to differentiate it from the withdrawal agreement and transition/implementation/buy time while we think deal.
