Femi Oluwole chats to Put it to the People marchers
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Some one million people were estimated to have joined the Put It To The People march in central London today, organisers said.
Organised by the People’s Vote, Britain for Europe and Open Britain, protesters demanded the public be given a final say on the Brexit process.
Campaigners seeking a second referendum started in Park Lane at midday before gathering at Parliament Square for a series of speeches, with demonstrators tailing back through the route shown on aerial footage.
On stage Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson addressed Theresa May's own speech this week when she told voters fed up of Brexit that "I am on your side".
He said: “Have a look out of the window prime minister. Open your curtains. Switch on your TV. Here are the people. Theresa May - you don’t speak for us.”
Best pictures from the Put It To The People protest
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And Michael Heseltine told marchers that the EU represented "parliamentary democracies working together with power based on a shared sovereignty far in excess of anything any one of us could achieve individually" over decades.
People came from across the country to join the demonstration. Sorcha Kirker, 27, travelled from Orkney and told The Independent: "This is too important to miss because of something like geography. It’s our future."
The march took place as Ms May fought to stay in office, with ministers reportedly plotting to oust her. In a letter to MPs she did not guarantee that she would bring her deal back to the Commons for a third meaningful vote, amid suspicions it would fail to pass again.
Despite Tom Watson’s supportive remarks, Labour’s official policy on a final say referendum has been somewhat confusing. The party’s Twitter team seems to have forgotten there’s a protest on.
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has joined the March to Leave in Linby, Nottinghamshire, telling a whopping 200 Brexit supporters that Theresa May had reduced the nation “to a state of humiliation”.
The march started in Sunderland a week ago and organisers hope to arrive in London on March 29.
Speaking from the top of an open-top bus, Mr Farage said those gathering for the Put it to the People march in London were not the majority, before leading the crowds through the village.
George Osborne has called for a long delay to the Brexit process.
“The best outcome now would be a long delay, and it’s not the worst thing in the world to ask people to vote for some MEPs, and certainly better than stockpiling medicine and turning Kent into a car park,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“So I think the best outcome is a long delay where we rethink how we deliver on the referendum result and we try and find a majority for a compromise Brexit agreement and possibly have a second referendum.”
Delia Smith is urging as many people as possible to join today’s march in London. Writing for The Independent, she says “the world has shrunk” and describes the isolationism of Brexit as “madness”.
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme presenter Jim Naughtie has apologised for likening members of the ERG to France’s National Front.
Naughtie said in a statement: “I was wrong to say in a live discussion this morning that members of the ERG would be happy in a far-right party.
“That was not my intention, because I don’t believe it. I was trying to make the point that if our parties fracture in some way after Brexit - on right and left - we could see a political landscape emerge that looks more like the rest of Europe than it does at the moment. But my words were ill-chosen and I'm sorry for any offence caused.”
Nigel Farage has been asked about the small numbers attending his pro-Brexit march.
Questioned this morning about the March to Leave supporters being outnumbered by the Put it to the People march, he pointed to the 200 plus cheering people gathered in a pub car park in Nottinghamshire and said: “There are 17.4 million here, can’t you see them?”
A reminder that over two hundred coaches from across the UK were booked to take people to London for today’s march. One coach left the Scottish Highlands on Friday evening.
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