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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Chris Johnston and Jamie Grierson

Brexit live: thousands 'march for Europe' in post-referendum protest - as it happened

Thousands march in London for Brexit protest

Afternoon summary

That’s about all from our Brexit live blog today. Here’s a quick wrap-up of Saturday’s events:

Updated

Channel 4 News political correspondent Michael Crick comments on the Tory leadership contest:

Guardian columnist Owen Jones was one of the speakers in Parliament Square this afternoon.

That petition calling for a second referendum on EU membership created by William Healey has now ticked over the four million mark.

You can sign it here.

Tottenham Labour MP David Lammy tweets:

The dramatic fall in the value of sterling since the EU vote has dealt a heavy blow to hundreds of thousands of older Britons living abroad who depend on a UK pension. If the pound doesn’t recover its losses, they will suffer a major hit in purchasing power, which may force some to return home.

Things are wrapping up at Parliament Square.

The march in pictures:

Updated

Angry Corbyn 'held back' by aides

Jeremy Corbyn leaves after speaking at an anti-racism rally in north London.
Jeremy Corbyn leaves after speaking at an anti-racism rally in north London. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters

Jeremy Corbyn was held back by aides on Saturday after a reporter asked if he was “running away” from answering questions about his beleaguered leadership. The Labour leader turned around to confront the journalist on Highbury Fields in north London, where he had been speaking at an anti-racism rally.

Photographer Julian Andrews told the Telegraph: “There were three or four camera crews and a handful of photographers. Everyone had been told that he wasn’t answering questions. He was walking back to his car when it happened.

“The reporter asked him if he was running away and he completely fired up. He swung around and made his way to confront her but two or three aides carried him away. He was really pissed off.”

Corbyn then told the reporter to contact his press office if she wanted to arrange an interview.

The incident comes as Angela Eagle made a renewed call for Corbyn to stand down.

Updated

Speaking of Angela Eagle, Ewen MacAskill has been Merseyside to visit the constituency of the former shadow defence secretary and shadow business secretary who is now a potential Labour leadership contender.

Many Labour MPs returning to their constituencies this weekend, including Eagle, face a backlash from pro-Jeremy Corbyn party members incensed by moves to oust him from office.

Angela Eagle tells Corbyn to quit

Angela Eagle.
Angela Eagle. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

Angela Eagle has renewed her call for beleaguered Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to quit for the good of the “party and the country”. The former shadow business secretary is poised to mount a challenge to Corbyn, with former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith also believed to be considering a bid.

As she called on Corbyn to do the “right thing for the party and the country”, Eagle told ITV News: “Let’s face it, the country is in a crisis and we need strong opposition. It’s all about Jeremy considering his position and I don’t think speculation about anything else is useful.”

Deputy leader Tom Watson is continuing to seek a meeting with Corbyn’s team to find a way of negotiating a settlement as the crisis engulfing the party shows no sign of abating.

Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker. Photograph: Nick Cunard/REX Shutterstock

Jarvis Cocker has recorded a video message for the estimated 30,000 people who took part in the March for Europe rally in London. In the message shot in a recording studio in Paris, the Pulp frontman held up a world map and said: “You cannot deny geography. The UK is in Europe. How can you take it out?”

The march started at Hyde Park and made its way through central London, ending with speeches at Parliament Square.

Labour peer Michael Cashman told the crowd: “No more lies, no more hate. We need to uphold the values of democracy and inclusiveness which are at the heart of the EU and this country. We must not let rightwing, narrow-minded nationalism nor xenophobia define us. We are better than that. I honestly believe the disinformation in this campaign has undermined our democracy. Decent British values are also the values of the European Union.”

Demonstrators wearing EU flags as capes and with homemade banners saying “Bremain” and “We love EU” joined the event, co-organised on social media by comedian and satirist Mark Thomas to address “anger, frustration and need to do something”. He said: “We would accept the result of the referendum if it was fought on a level playing field. But it was full of misinformation and people need to do something with their frustration.”

Actor Billie Piper said: “We’re all entitled to an opinion. We’re all angry and we’re all scared and, quite frankly, some of us are ashamed. We have been eager to show the rest of the world that the decision does not speak for all of us. The horrific violence and terrifying hate crime might have happened on British soil but those attitudes are not British.

She added: “I worry, in the throes of frustration and disgust, that some of us have stooped as low as the people that we’re angry at. If you judge people for their backgrounds or make sweeping generalisations about people we don’t understand then we’re nothing but hypocrites.”

Updated

Speeches underway in Parliament Square

Thousands of protesters on the March for Europe have reached Parliament Square.
Thousands of protesters on the March for Europe have reached Parliament Square. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters

I’ve arrived at Parliament Square, which is overflowing with thousands of demonstrators. A sea of people waving flags, banners and placards have gathered in the shadow of Big Ben to voice their anger at the Brexit vote.

Guest speakers are delivering speeches from a stage set up in front of the square, including David Lammy MP, who is campaigning to have the decision voted down in the Commons. “Look at this Nigel Farage, look at this Boris Johnson, look at this Michael Gove,” he told the crowd. Lammy was followed by Sir Bob Geldof, who told the crowd he felt “bereft”.

Protesters hold pro-EU placards on the March for Europe.
Protesters hold pro-EU placards on the March for Europe. Photograph: Niklas Halle/AFP/Getty Images

Between speeches, chants broke out. “Fromage not Farage”, “never gonna give EU up”, “nothing compares 2 EU”, “Don’t EU want me baby” and “they lied to leave – is that democracy?” were among the slogans and messages written on banners held aloft in the square.

Updated

Good to see the Queen of Pop (sorry Madonna) lending a voice to the anti-Brexit cause, albeit unwittingly we admit.

March reaches Downing Street

Jeremy Corbyn attends an anti-racism rally in north London on Sunday.
Jeremy Corbyn attends an anti-racism rally in north London on Sunday. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, is urging colleagues to step back from the brink in challenging Jeremy Corbyn, warning that a leadership election in which the incumbent stands again could cause untold damage to the party.

Watson is seeking to organise a meeting with Corbyn’s closest advisers to try to agree a negotiated settlement that would see the Labour leader step down voluntarily, thus avoiding an acrimonious and drawn-out battle.

Labour MPs remain divided over whether Angela Eagle, the recently resigned shadow business secretary, should formally trigger a leadership challenge on Monday or if another candidate, such as Owen Smith, would be a better option.

Updated

Updated

Peter Sheaf, 37, a former civil servant, says he feared that the UK economy now faces a sustained recession, adding: “I’m also concerned by the spike in hate crimes – that’s really scary. There’s just massive uncertainty.” On the campaign to leave the EU, Sheaf says: “I’ve never seen such sustained misrepresentation of the truth.”

His partner Robyn Jankel, 31, says the couple are now reconsidering opening a cafe for fear of uncertain economic times. Sheaf and Jankel both want the government to find a way of staying in the EU. “I hope they can find a democratic way of doing that – I am conscious of that,” she says.

Updated

Meanwhile in Manchester the Women’s Equality party, which was founded by broadcaster Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer last year, is holding a rally to set out its plans for shaping post-Brexit Britain.

Party leader Sophie Walker says: “Brexit has thrown into doubt rights and protections that were guaranteed to women and to some of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable. The economic turbulence threatens to deprioritise the needs of the underrepresented majorities.”

Updated

Hey EU ...

Updated

Marching down Piccadilly near Green Park station, Wiz Kelly, 46, an arts administrator from London, holds a banner aloft reading “stay in”. She says: “I was hurt and disappointed by the vote. I think a lot of people voted because they were angry at other things and a lot of people now regret their decision. There’s also no clear plan. People are horrified about the way forward.”

Updated

This slogan has become one of the favourites of protesters on the march.
This slogan has become one of the favourites of protesters on the march. Photograph: Becky Jacobs

Marie Sansford, 66, from Brighton, said she was against joining the European Union in the 1970s. “I feared that joining the EU would allow global companies to take over, which has happened to an extent. But being in the EU we can group together with other countries, be friends with our neighbours. I don’t want to see the whole of Europe fall apart. I’m just very worried for future generations,” she said.

Nathaniel Samson, 25, from Hertfordshire, says: “I was genuinely stunned on the morning after the vote. I feel deeply uncertain about my future. I’m on the march to voice my discontentment. I am accepting the result, but it’s to show that we won’t accept it quietly.”

The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, has tweeted from the march. Some have been speculating this week that the Brexit vote could help revive the party, whose standing at Westminster was slashed in last year’s general election to just eight MPs. That’s the same number as the Democratic Unionist party.

Updated

Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of the Day, asks in today’s Financial Times if Britain voted for xenophobia.

Updated

Frank PR founder Andrew Bloch tweets:

The Independent’s political corrrespondent Jon Stone has also had his camera out:

Updated

Duncan Weldon, head of research at Resolution Group and former Newsnight economics correspondent, tweets:

Read more on his thoughts about Brexit here.

A remain supporter with his face painted in the EU flag
A remain supporter marches on. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA

Comedian and satirist Mark Thomas organised today’s march in London to address his “anger, frustration and need to do something” and hoped that between 20,000 and 40,000 people would attend.

“We would accept the result of the referendum if it was fought on a level playing field. But it was full of misinformation and people need to do something with their frustration,” he said.

Bill Baker, 59, and his daughter Jess, 22, from Islington, north London, had made a banner for the march which read: “I will always love EU.” Jess Baker said: “We didn’t want to leave but if you respect the decision of the referendum, which we should, we still want Britain to be EU orientated, outward looking and inclusive.”

Philippa Griffin, 40, from Hertfordshire, said: “I’m absolutely outraged at the way people voted, the lies the referendum was based on and the divide in the country because of it. My ideal outcome from this march is that MPs realise that leaving the EU is not what people truly want. It feels like our country has already changed.”

The Met police said there would be officers at the event to provide “flexible and appropriate” policing.

Updated

Here’s a picture from a rally in support of Jeremy Corbyn in Leeds.

Queen tells leaders to remain 'calm and collected'

The Queen meets, from left to right, Scottish first minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale at the opening of the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh.
The Queen meets, from left to right, Scottish first minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale at the opening of the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

The Queen has issued a clear warning to the UK’s political leaders to remain “calm and collected” after the vote to leave the EU, as she formally opened the new session of the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh.

Making her fifth opening speech at Holyrood before formal processions through central Edinburgh, the Queen made no explicit mention of the referendum or the chaos now gripping the Tory and Labour parties, but she told MSPs that true leadership demanded “deeper, cooler” thinking in times of turbulence.

She said new parliaments were “rightly a time for hope and optimism and the beginning of this new session in particular brings with it a real sense of renewal, with your largest intake of new members since 1999 [the year the devolved parliament was established].”

The monarch then added: “Of course we all live and work in an increasingly complex and demanding world, where events and developments can and do take place at remarkable speed. And retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can at times be hard.

“As this parliament has successfully demonstrated over the years, one hallmark of leadership in such a fast-moving world is allowing sufficient room for quiet thinking and contemplation which can enable deeper, cooler consideration of how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed.”

Holyrood’s presiding officer, Ken McIntosh, had introduced the Queen by mentioning the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox in West Yorkshire and the Orlando gay nightclub shootings in the US, noting that the session was being opened after “weeks of unprecedented political turbulence” which had “borne witness to the politics of hate”.

Updated

The official set-off time for the march in London - midday - is nearing.

Sigmar Gabriel, the German economy minister.
Sigmar Gabriel, the German economy minister.

Germany should offer citizenship to young Britons living in Germany given that mostly older voters in England and Wales wanted Brexit, the country’s economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said. “That’s why we shouldn’t just pull up the drawbridge,” he told a Social Democrat party (SPD) conference in Berlin.

Gabriel, who is also the vice-chancellor, told his party that the EU should think about what it could offer young Britons: “Let’s offer it to the young Brits who live in Germany, Italy or France so that they can remain EU citizens in this country.”

The opposition Green party has called for Germany to make it easy for Britons living there to get a German passport.

Updated

Andrea Leadsom on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Friday.
Andrea Leadsom on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Friday. Photograph: Ken McKay/REX/Shutterstock

The Conservative leadership contender Andrea Leadsom appears to have taken a swipe at the frontrunner, Theresa May, saying the next leader must be a Brexit supporter rather than someone “who is reluctantly following the wishes of the people”.

Leadsom is reportedly odds-on to become May’s closest rival on the ballot paper that will decide Britain’s next prime minister, as Michael Gove fails to land significant backing from fellow Conservative MPs after he forced out Boris Johnson from the contest.

Asked whether the next Conservative leader must be a leave supporter, Leadsom, who campaigned to leave the EU, told the Daily Telegraph: “I certainly think [so] because I’ve been absolutely closely involved and very passionate about the opportunities from Brexit.”

Read more here.

Brexit is coming...

Campaigners called on Theresa May to rethink the ‘snooper’s charter’ at a Westminster protest on Friday.
Campaigners called on Theresa May to rethink the ‘snooper’s charter’ at a Westminster protest on Friday. Photograph: James Gourley/Rex/Shutterstock

Guido Fawkes reports that the Daily Telegraph has taken down an article by Jonathan Foreman headlined Theresa May is a great self-promoter, but a terrible home secretary after pressure from her campaign.

The report says: “Foreman was given various excuses by the Daily Telegraph as to why they had changed their mind and pulled the article. Of course the internet never forgets. Now the story will be read even more widely. It is simply excoriating.

“The article was a comprehensive list of her policy failures in office and argued she was better at projecting an image of being a safe pair of hands than actually keeping the country safe. So damaging did May’s campaign think it that they insisted it be removed or the newspaper would suffer consequences after her coronation …”

Foreman’s piece can still be read here.

Updated

More scenes from the march.

Updated

Thousands of people are attending March for Europe in central London.
Thousands of people are attending March for Europe in central London.

Crowds are swelling in Park Lane at the start of the march to Parliament Square against the Brexit vote. Protesters waving EU flags and clutching home-made banners and placards are preparing to walk through the streets of central London.

Chants of “EU, we love you” are breaking out, while messages of “Hope not hate”, “Breverse” and “Parliament use your sovereignty to save the UK from this crisis” are being held aloft by the demonstrators, many of whom are wearing remain T-shirts from the defeated campaign to vote to stay in the EU.

Updated

The finest wits in Britain have been busy with their placards for today’s march it seems.

Updated

Momentum, the grassroots movement that supports Jeremy Corybn, has dismissed claims that the Labour leader could resign after being offered a settlement that would ensure his top priorities were maintained under his successor.

A banner supporting Jeremy Corbyn at a rally in Cardiff on Friday.
A banner supporting Jeremy Corbyn at a rally in Cardiff on Friday. Photograph: Jim Wood/Barcroft Images

James Schneider, a national organiser, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The coup plotters are now flailing about because they have had 10 months to plot this coup and it seems like it has failed. Jeremy Corbyn has shown incredible steel in staying there and not falling, and staying there on behalf of the principle of democracy in the party.”

Schneider claimed Corbyn would win any contest and insisted the wave of people signing up for Labour membership was mainly supportive of the leader: “They don’t have a candidate who can beat Jeremy Corbyn.”

Updated

Still confused by what must rank as one of the wildest weeks in UK politics? Let Michael White take you by the hand and explain the Brexit vote aftermath.

And they’re off - the London march starts on Park Lane near Hyde Park Corner and will proceed down Piccadilly, Pall Mall and Whitehall before ending at Parliament Square, where speakers will address the crowd.

Updated

The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, is attending the march in London today.

Updated

Welcome to our Brexit live blog, with full coverage of the March for Europe taking place in central London and other towns and cities around the UK today.

Labour’s David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, tweeted this call to arms last night:

Updated

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