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'Our Future, Our Choice': Campaign launched for young people who want Brexit stopped

Femi Oluwole promises to deliver the 'will of the people' for 'the under 55 population'

Tom Embury-Dennis
Wednesday 14 February 2018 12:42 GMT
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Young Remainer starts new movement 'Our Future, Our Choice' for young people to try to stop Brexit

A new student campaign group to stop Brexit is receiving praise after its co-founder appeared on Sky News outlining why a majority of young people want to remain in the European Union.

Femi Oluwole, a graduate who specialises in EU law, launched the pressure group Our Future, Our Choice, in an attempt to deliver the “will of the people” for “the under 55 population”.

Appearing on Sky News, the 27-year-old suggested the process of leaving the EU would still be ongoing in 2023, by which time he claimed there would be more Remain voters than Leave – suggesting enough older, pro-Brexit voters would have died to swing public opinion the other way.

“It’s our (young people’s) future. Who’s going to be looking for a job in that economy?” he told presenter Adam Boulton. “Who’s going to be raising a family in that economy? Who’s going to be looking for a mortgage in that economy?”

“It’s the people that voted not to have this.”

Addressing the political leadership over Brexit, Mr Oluwole said as a "leftie" he “should be on Jeremy Corbyn’s side”, but that the Labour leader's stance in support of leaving the EU was “going to make lives harder for the very people he is trying to protect”.

“If he wants an NHS that functions, he needs to make sure we have an economy that functions and can support those public services,” he continued.

“If he wants to make sure we have all the doctors we need, he needs to make sure we don’t discourage EU migrants who currently make up relatively more of our doctors than we do.”

Former Labour press secretary and anti-Brexit campaigner, Alastair Campbell, praised Mr Oluwole’s impassioned defence of the EU.

“I want this guy to be on telly and radio all day,” he wrote on Twitter. “More sense out of his mouth in a few minutes than the thousands of hours from our so called political leaders right now.”

Heidi Alexander, a Labour MP, praised Mr Oluwole’s interview, saying his comments were a “great way of describing the single market”.

Pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain’s chief executive, Eloise Todd, praised Mr Oluwole for “telling it like it is over Brexit”.

Our Future, Our Choice is pushing for a new referendum on any final deal the Government agrees with the EU over the terms of Brexit.

In an open letter, which it describes as its manifesto, the group urges Mr Corbyn to stop “wasting time, energy, and money delivering a project that is already costing us prosperity and influence”.

It states: “Jeremy, you should remember that there will be a time when our generation ages. We will soon confront the reality of what we have been left, and if we do not like it we will simply reverse it.

It continues: “The only sustainable Brexit is no Brexit. Seen in this light, Brexit becomes a question of legacy; for you, Theresa May, and your generation.”

Mr Oluwole is not new to broadcast media. The human rights advocate has repeatedly called in to Nigel Farage’s LBC radio show to correct the former Ukip leader over false claims about the EU.

On a fundraising page for his new pressure group, Mr Oluwole says he is “going to deliver the will of the people, the people who will actually have to live with the consequences of Brexit”.

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