'More than 700,000 protesters' and celebrities join second largest protest in UK this century
Sadiq Khan says another referendum is needed because young people's 'future is on the line'
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An estimated 700,000 people gathered in central London to call for a second referendum on a final Brexit deal.
MPs from across the political spectrum and a slew of famous names took part in the People’s Vote march, sponsored by The Independent as part of its Final Say campaign.
Some 1,000 young activists led the so-called “march for the future” from Park Lane towards a rally in Parliament Square.
There, demonstrators from across the UK heard speeches from household names including television presenter Delia Smith and London mayor Sadiq Khan.
“We were the few, and now we are the many,” Conservative MP Anna Soubry told the crowds at the largest protest in the UK since the 2003 demonstrations over the Iraq war.
“We are winning the argument and we are winning the argument most importantly against those who voted Leave,” she added.
Christian Broughton, editor of The Independent, told marchers: “Theresa May says that the Final Say referendum will be a politicians’ vote, not a people’s vote, but we can all remember what some politicians told us in 2016.
“We, the people, can all now see what’s really coming. And from where I’m standing it looks like a people’s vote to me.”
Nearly 950,000 people have signed The Independent‘s petition urging Theresa May to call a referendum on the final Brexit deal.
Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston said calls for a People’s Vote could ”no longer be ignored” and urged Labour Jeremy Corbyn to back the campaign.
“If we had the whole of the Labour Party, as well as the SNP, the Liberal Demcorats, and obviously a very significant number of my colleagues, we would get it past it,” she said. “We need him to come behind it.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, and Labour MP Chuka Umunna all addressed the crowd at the march.
In a video message, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, said: “Let me say this loudly and clearly, if the issue comes before the House of Commons, SNP MPs will support a People’s Vote which includes the option to remain in the EU.”
Read how we covered the march live below.
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Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he thinks "people have woken up to the potential disaster" of Brexit.
He added: "Even if they negotiate a deal, it's going to be a bad deal, where we're going to spend years under European Union rules but have no say in them and beyond that there's a cliff edge.
"We've realised there isn't a good deal coming out of this and a lot of people are frightened, people are worried."
Addressing the rally earlier, he said it was the "majority" of his generation that voted to leave, "taking the freedom" away from young voters.
To cheers from the crowds, he added: "There is no deal better than the one we have now: it is better for Britain and better for Europe."
There have been ominous warnings of food and medicine shortages after Brexit, but at least the UK retains a plentiful supply of wit. There has been much of it on display today - on marchers' placards, body parts and dogs:
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Nigel Farage, who has been at a Leave Means Leave rally in Harrogate today, said he would be "happy to have another referendum in 20 years or so".
Speaking to Sky News, the former Ukip leader suggested holding a new vote in the near future would cause "a wave of public anger" and plunge the country "into more uncertainty".
He claimed the UK would vote to leave the EU "by a much bigger margin" in a second referendum.
Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston said calls for a People's Vote "can no longer be ignored" following today's protest, urging Jeremy Corbyn to back a second referendum.
The Totnes MP, who took part in the march, said a second referendum could result in another Leave vote but "we need to be given the chance to see it".
She added: "Let people weigh up and the pros and cons of the actual deal or no deal that we're heading for and then they can give their informed consent, and for me that's the key principle here."
Ms Wollaston said the backing of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would "absolutely" make a difference to calls for a second referendum, adding: "If we had the whole of the Labour party, as well as the SNP, the Liberal Demcorats, and obviously a very significant number of my colleagues, we would get it past it.
"We need him to come behind it."
A sizeable anti-Brexit rally was also held this afternoon in Belfast, where campaigners said Europe was a force for peace in Northern Ireland.
More than a thousand people, many waving EU flags and carrying anti-DUP placards, gathered outside Belfast's city hall.
The Rally for Remain was organised to coincide with the People's Vote march in London.
Northern Ireland voted by a majority of 56 per cent to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum.
Cross-community Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said: "We have the EU to thank for the longest period of peace and stability on the continent of Europe in history.
"The EU forced nations to compromise, forced people to come together on the big issues like climate change.
"It underpinned the peace. The EU spent money underpinning the peace right across Europe, from the fall of the Berlin Wall, which could have been chaotic, right through to the former Yugoslavia.
"Nowhere did it do that more so than right here."
More than 946,000 people have now signed The Independent's petition calling for a the public to be given a Final Say on the Brexit deal.
Thousands of signatures have flooded in today amid a huge turnout for the People's Vote march.
Addressing the rally this afternoon, The Independent's editor Christian Broughton said he had "hoped we might get as many as 20,000 signatures" when the petition launched earlier this year.
"Marches this big tend not to be on the wrong side of history," The Independent's Tom Peck warns Theresa May in this sketch of today's rally.
The Independent has urged Britain's MPs to "keep the nation's options open" as the Brexit negotiations enter their final phase.
An editorial following today's march argues the case for a second referendum will be "irresistible" if Theresa May's government is unable to reach a deal with EU negotiators.
We're wrapping up this live blog now - thanks for reading.
We'll leave you with this analysis by Joe Watts, who says a second referendum is looking increasingly possible after nearly 700,000 people turned out in support of a People's Vote:
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