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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Mattha Busby

People's Vote march: '700,000' rally for new Brexit referendum – as it happened

What we know

We’re going to bring our coverage of today’s events to an end. Thanks for reading, and here’s a summary of what happened:

  • Organisers claim that 700,000 people attended the march to demand a people’s vote on the final terms of any Brexit deal. That would make it the second largest protest in the UK this century after the Stop the War demonstration in 2003.
  • The police declined to estimate the number of protesters
  • Progress through London was slow for many of the protesters with the streets jam-packed and many of those at the back of the march missed out on the speeches
  • A Leave Means Leave rally in Harrogate attracted about 1,200 people, including Nigel Farage
  • Leading remain advocates Chuka Umunna, Sadiq Khan, Vince Cable, Caroline Lucas and Anna Soubry addressed the crowds in Parliament Square
  • Nicola Sturgeon appeared via video link to reiterate that SNP MPs would give a people’s vote their unconditional backing
  • Celebrities including the actor Andy Serkis, writer Armando Iannucci, chef Delia Smith and TV entrepeneur Deborah Meaden were among the crowd
  • Tube stations in south-west London were temporarily made exit/interchange only to help prevent overcrowding
  • A variety of fantastic placards were on display, from “If loving EU is wrong I don’t want to be right” to “Brexipitated? Relieve yourself with a public vote”.
‘Bad deal? No deal?’
‘Bad deal? No deal?’ Photograph: John Keeble/Getty Images

Updated

Europe is a force for peace in Northern Ireland and around the world, a pro-remain rally in Belfast has been told, after a sizeable crowd waving EU flags and carrying anti-DUP placards converged outside Belfast city hall on Saturday afternoon.

The 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.”

One placard hoisted aloft in the crowd said: “56% say protect Good Friday”, pointing towards the percentage of people in Northern Ireland who voted to remain. Another read: “We won’t be DUP’ed”.

John Barry, a Queen’s University professor associated with the Green party in Northern Ireland, attacked the Brexiters. “They are drunk on magical thinking around making England great again and continuing the border with science fiction technology and an exaggerated sense of their importance in the world and they show no signs of sobering up,” he said.

Sinn Féin’s vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, said Brexiters had exhibited “reckless disregard” for the people of Northern Ireland. “They care nothing for jobs or for rights and are prepared to drive our economy over the cliff,” she said.

Updated

'700,000 marched for a people's vote today', organisers estimate

People’s Vote UK, the organisers of today’s march, now put the turnout at close to three-quarters of a million:

Updated

Jessica Elgot, the Guardian’s political correspondent, wonders why today’s Leave Means Leave rally was held in Harrogate:

Nigel Farage was apparently in a hurry to get to the event:

Updated

Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, was moved by today’s turnout:

Updated

Jacob Rees-Mogg, perhaps predictably, has given the march short shrift:

Updated

The march is officially over, but the streets are still jam-packed.

Here are a few more photos we missed earlier:

‘The worst is yet to come’
‘The worst is yet to come’ Photograph: Niklas Halle'N/AFP/Getty Images
A selfie
A selfie Photograph: Alex McBride/Getty Images
The Maybot
The Maybot Photograph: Penelope Barritt/REX/Shutterstock
‘You Brexit, we fix it’
‘You Brexit, we fix it’ Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

The Labour MP Chuka Umunna, whose Lambeth constituency was the most pro-remain in England at the referendum, criticised Brexiters who “have tried to smear us as some liberal metropolitan elite, when nothing could be further from the truth”.

Labour Member of Parliament, Chuka Umunna, addresses the anti-Brexit demonstration
Chuka Umunna addresses the crowd. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters

Right from the start of this debate they tried to set different parts of our United Kingdom against each other. They wanted to divide this country. And the truth is, whether you are from a remain or leave area, the problems are the same.

Whether you are from Liverpool, Lincoln, Llandudno, Livingston in Scotland or Lambeth, where I am, Brexit is not going to make those problems better. It is going to make them worse.

The deal on the table is nowhere near as good as the deal we’ve got now.

Updated

The standup comic John Bishop pleads with the government in all seriousness:

Updated

Sadiq Khan notes the diversity of the crowd:

Updated

The comedian Dom Joly contrasted today’s rally with last Saturday’s march by the far-right Football Lads Democratic Alliance.

Updated

Addressing the crowd in Parliament Square earlier, the Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, said it was “a tragedy this country is being divided by generation”.

He said it was the majority of his generation that voted to leave, taking the freedom away from young voters. “There is no deal better than the one we have now. It is better for Britain and better for Europe,” he said to cheers.

Britain’s leader of the Liberal Democrat party, Vince Cable, addresses the crowd
Britain’s leader of the Liberal Democrat party, Vince Cable, addresses the crowd Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters

Following his speech, Cable added: “I think people have woken up to the potential disaster. 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.”

Updated

From Brexcrement and Brexshit to a Banksy-inspired placard, here are the best banners of the day.

Updated

The Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr, whose series of stories caused Facebook’s share value to tumble and Cambridge Analytica to fold, is being trumpeted as a future prime minister.

Stranger things have happened ...

‘Carole Cadwalladr for Prime Minister’.
‘Carole Cadwalladr for prime minister’. Photograph: @mautotomau

Updated

The Green party MP Caroline Lucas described the huge crowd as a beautiful sight.

What a movement we have become. The Green party is proud to be part of this amazing movement for a people’s vote, because we know that democracy didn’t end on the 23 June 2016. That referendum wasn’t the end of the story. It was the start of something new.

MP Caroline Lucas (left) looks on as MP Vince Cable addresses Anti-Brexit campaigners
Caroline Lucas (left) looks on as Vince Cable addresses anti-Brexit campaigners Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

[Brexit] would make our poorest communities even poorer and more powerless. We must have that people’s vote, but we must also re-programme an economy that fails so many, that is based on such inequality, that condemns us to climate breakdown.

Updated

Another roundup of photos from today, with a video from Anna Soubry’s speech.

‘If loving EU is wrong I don’t want to be right’
‘If loving EU is wrong I don’t want to be right’. Photograph: Jack Dredd/Rex/Shutterstock
Anna Soubry addresses anti-Brexit campaigners as Chuka Umunna and Vince Cable watch on
Anna Soubry addresses the rally. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The Conservative MP Anna Soubry told crowds in Parliament Square that “it is clear we are the many” and that “we will take responsibly and sort out this mess”.

Sadiq Khan delivers his speech in Parliament Square
Sadiq Khan delivers his speech in Parliament Square. Photograph: Vickie Flores/EPA
‘How dare you’
‘How dare you’. Photograph: Richard Isaac/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

‘67% did not vote leave’
‘67% did not vote leave’ Photograph: Dinendra Haria/REX/Shutterstock

More protesters have told our reporter about their fears of a no-deal Brexit and the potential effect it could have on peace in Ireland, the economy, and LGBT rights.

Peter, 60, from Crawley, had created a large banner that read: “Would an honourable country renege on a peace treaty? No hard border in Ireland.” While he’s not Irish, Peter said: “I remember the Troubles from the 70s. That’s no reason to take the status quo for granted. People forget too soon the benefits of the Good Friday agreement.”

He said it filled him with despair to hear people talk of scrapping the Good Friday agreement in the hopes of a clean exit out of the EU. “The whole Irish economy could be so badly affected and then you look at history and the way we’ve treated them in the past, it’s a bit of a rough deal for them. They deserve better treatment from us.”

Derick, 35, who lives in London, was waving an rainbow flag and marching with an LGBT group. He said he had come to the march because he was “concerned that this might be one of the last opportunity to get through how serious the situation is”.

“It’s pretty terrifying and I’m transgender and basically most of my rights as a person has come from the EU. If we leave the EU, I am liable to not become a person,” he said.

Matthew Cooke, 28, who had come down from Scunthorpe with the Modern Union for a Changing World, described the prospect of a no-deal Brexit as “terrifying”.

“Brexit in its guise is no good for jobs, no good for workers rights and no good for people’s finance,” he said. “It would be remiss not to be out here to not get a better future for everybody.” Cooke, who has worked as both a steelworker and a trade unionist, said it was the duty of the union to fight to get better deals for their workers.

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, just addressed the crowd at Parliament Square via video link.

Updated

It appears that Rachel Johnson, sister of the former foreign secretary, attended the march in London today.

Like Boris, Jason Gillot, a 43-year-old Londoner who is on the march today, also changed his mind significantly on Brexit – albeit slightly after Boris. Gillot originally voted to leave the EU, but said he changed his mind five days after the referendum.

“I’m politically agnostic but I was just sick of the lies that have come out of both sides,” he said, going on to explain he initially voted to leave due to “economic evidence partly supplied by the Tax Payers’ Alliance” which “made sense at the time”.

“Now we have actual facts and realities of what’s going to be happening,” he said. Gillot has been marching with a sign that says “When the facts change, I change my mind! What do you do sir?”

Updated

1,200 people attend Leave Means Leave rally

Elsewhere, in Harrogate, at the Leave Means Leave rally there are reportedly 1,200 people in attendance.

Sky have reported that Nigel Farage claimed “millions” of people were streaming the pro-Brexit events; however, on Twitter, 190 people are watching the Harrogate event, while there are 12,000 views on its Facebook stream.

Aerial footage shows thousands of protesters on the march

The tail of the protest has now moved on to Piccadilly, far later than planned, indicating the scale of the turnout today.

ITV’s Robert Peston has tried to give us all a sense of the size of the march.

Updated

The Metropolitan police have said today’s march has passed without incident, in spite of the sheer size of the demonstration. A spokesperson said they were not aware of any arrests and there had been no criminal disruption.

Protesters line the streets of London.
Protesters line the streets of London. Photograph: Richard Isaac/REX/Shutterstock

The scale of today’s protest places it in the upper echelons of protests since the millennium. A march organised by the Countryside Alliance in 2002 calling for Liberty & Livelihood reportedly attracted more than 400,000 people, while the TUC’s March for the Alternative anti-cuts protest in 2011 also saw around 400,000 people take to the streets.

Rural workers from all over Britain gallop across Parliament Square, London, with their dogs and horses to step-up their opposition to any Government move to ban hunting, Wednesday 22 May 2002.
Rural workers from all over Britain gallop across Parliament Square, London, with their dogs and horses to step-up their opposition to any Government move to ban hunting, Wednesday 22 May 2002. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The organisers of protests against Trump’s visit earlier this year said more than 250,000 people attended. However, the Stop the War protest against the War in Iraq in 2003 still ranks at the most well-attended after 2000, with 2,000,000 people according to organisers, although the police claimed just 750,000 were there.

Thousands of people gather in Hyde Park after finishing an anti-Iraq war protest march February 15, 2003 in London
Thousands of people gather in Hyde Park after finishing an anti-Iraq war protest march February 15, 2003 in London Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Updated

Organisers now estimate 670,000 people are marching today

MPs have also tweeted their support for a people’s vote.

Sadiq Khan is now addressing the crowds at Parliament Square. Ahead of his platform performance he said today would become a historic moment, adding that no one had voted to “make life harder for our children and grandchildren”.

Today will go down as an historic moment in our democracy. A moment when in their thousands, people from every corner of our country and every section of our society will take to the streets – coming to make our voice heard.

The lies, the mistruths and the deceptions of the referendum campaign have now been exposed, and it’s clear the will of the people is changing. No one voted to leave the EU to make themselves poorer. No one voted to make life harder for our children and grandchildren. No one voted to see our NHS damaged. And no one voted for the shambles that this government has created.

Updated

The actor Andy Serkis, who starred in Lord of the Rings, is on the march with his wife, Lorraine Ashbourne, and 14-year-old son Louis.

He believes there should be a second referendum “now that people are more informed” and that “the will of the people doesn’t have to stand still, it’s not an immovable thing that is fixed.”

‘Don’t let these clowns decide your future’
‘Don’t let these clowns decide your future’ Photograph: Richard Isaac/REX/Shutterstock

“The will of the people is now, it’s people expressing their points of view in a more informed state,” he said.

Serkis expressed concern for the film industry if the UK were to leave the EU. “There’s free movement between the European countries and we’ve attracted a lot of industry here as a result and that could be seriously damaged, which is the same for a lot of industries,” he said.

Updated

Diana Luck, from Muswell Hill, is one of many women on the march carrying various homemade ‘angry granny’ signs. Her’s simply reads “Very Angry Grandmother”.

“I am very angry at the things that are happening like Brexit and Trump and very worried about the future for my children and grandchildren,” she said. “I think that’s true for all of us angry grannies.”

She added she was marching because democracy was being eroded and the things she believes in, like the NHS, were being threatened.

Meanwhile, Joe Trickey, from Croydon, is celebrating his 83rd birthday at the march. “I believe very strongly in the EU as a place of peace and strength,” he said. “Going out puts us in isolation and leaving isn’t about trade deals, it’s about our values.”

Trickey is protesting alongside his daughter, who is holding a sign about his birthday, and plans to celebrate afterwards with “a glass of wine”.

Updated

A brief reminder on what may have compelled people to take to the streets in droves today.

Sturgeon reiterates that SNP MPs will back people's vote

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, has sent a surprise video message of support to the rally promising that the SNP’s 35 MPs would give their unconditional backing for a people’s vote.

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. The leave campaign has already gone down in history as one of most disingenuous, dishonourable and downright dishonest electoral contests of modern times. Those responsible should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

Instead of a coherent vision and clear prospectus setting out what a vote to leave the EU would mean, all we got was waffle and that infamous lie on the side of a bus. Incredible though it may seem, things since then have got even worse.

The Tory government’s handling of these negotiations has been chaotic, incompetent and shambolic. Having spent two years telling us that no deal was better than a bad deal, the prime minister is now preparing to pile pressure on MPs to vote for a bad or blindfold deal on the grounds that ‘no deal’ would be catastrophic. She is trying to scare the UK into the frying pan out of fear of the fire. It is a scandal and it should not be accepted.

Updated

There are still thousands of people at Hyde Park corner stuck in a jam before they are expected to make their way down Piccadilly.

It appears that the police dramatically under-estimated the number of marchers, but they are being kept happy with various chants and a sound system blaring out Kraftwerk’s TransEurop Express.

Updated

I <3 EU
‘I <3 EU’ Photograph: Niklas Halle'N/AFP/Getty Images

The march is finally moving, but progressing incredibly slowly. It’s frequently stopping and starting. The roads are rammed with protesters, many of whom are happily dancing along to the samba band.

Louise Penn, who travelled down from Norfolk, was pleased that so many people had turned up. “We brought London to a standstill and that’s a message in of itself,” she said. “I’m doing this partly for myself, but for my children and their children. This is for the future of the country.”

‘NHS vs Brexit’
‘NHS vs Brexit’ Photograph: Niklas Halle'N/AFP/Getty Images

Peter De Clercq, 39, came down with Penn on the same bus. He said at the last people’s vote march there was only one bus coming down from Norfolk, but this morning there was six buses full of protesters heading to London. He was incredibly happy with the turnout.

De Clercq, who is originally from Belgium, said that after living in the UK for 18 years he felt he was suddenly being stripped of his right.

“I’m losing my rights. I can’t vote. I didn’t have a vote before and we all deserve the vote,” he said. “I’m doing this for every European citizen, including the British.”

Updated

Protesters have brought traffic to a standstill in central London as the march proves far more popular than initially expected.

David Mitchell, chairman of the Enfield Liberal Democrat group, suggested the large turnout it was partly down to how negotiations had floundered in recent weeks.

“I think it’s due partly to how the negotiations have gone in the past six months, but it’s also a credit to the European movement who have really got themselves organised,” he said, describing the group of protesters at today’s march as twice as many than at the march in June.

Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People’s Vote March for the Future
Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People’s Vote March for the Future Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

“Enfield overwhelmingly voted to stay in the EU and we want to make it clear that Enfield is committed to staying in the European Union.

“The polls are showing that we voted to have a go at this process, it hasn’t worked, so now the people need to have a say on how we’re going with it,” he added. “It’s now or never really, we’re getting to crunch time.”

Updated

More photos from the march:

Older voters come out to oppose Brexit.
Older voters come out to oppose Brexit. Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer
Throwing shade on Brexit.
Throwing shade on Brexit. Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer
‘No border in Ireland’.
‘No border in Ireland’. Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer
Brexit is giving Theresa May a headache, according to Sarah Jane Checkland
Brexit is giving Theresa May a headache, according to Sarah Jane Checkland Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer
‘Its our future’, proclaims a young man.
‘Its our future’, proclaims a young man. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer

More than 500,000 people on march, say organisers

Organisers are heralding the largest Brexit demonstration yet as 570,000 people come together for the People’s Vote march.

The campaign has stewards stationed at regular intervals to estimate the size of the vast crowd that backed up Park Lane and spilled into Hyde Park before setting off toward Piccadilly and a mass rally in Parliament Square.

“Shortly after midday the sheer weight of number forced the closure of not only the southbound but also the northbound carriage way of Park Lane as the size of the crowd soared far above the massive march for a People’s Vote in June this year,” said a spokesperson.

“This makes it the second biggest demonstration this century behind the 1 million estimated to have protested against the Iraq War in 2003.”

Updated

Activist Adam Bradford, one of the leading voices in the young People’s Vote and founder of group Brexit by Under 30s, says we face a bleak future and young voices need amplifying.

Young voices need amplifying in the Brexit debate and the misconceptions around what a People’s Vote really means need to be unravelled. I feel like the government does not constitutionally have the mandate to change the country in this way overnight, I am feeling vulnerable as an employer of EU citizens and now the government is turning inwards we are facing a bleak future.

We have this rhetoric coming from Downing Street which keeps saying it is delivering on the “will of the people” and we are in a situation where the government is trying to force through a deal that is being held up like this is something we voted to do. But people actually voted whether to leave or remain in the EU. We didn’t vote for this Segway into a hard Brexit with the outcome unknown.

The government does not have the mandate to fundamentally change the country overnight. Before we actually had the vote, we should have been better informed and we should have been immediately aware of what leaving would mean.

The government is closed off to what people are saying, it is turning its back on our concerns and turning inwards. We are not Brexiteers and we are not “remoaners”. We just want to know how we will be supported. The government is playing politics with the next generation’s future.

Updated

Protesters hold placards calling key Brexiteers and media moguls liars.
Protesters hold placards calling key Brexiteers and media moguls liars. Photograph: John Keeble/Getty Images

On the march, Elena Remigi, founder of the In Limbo project, has spoken of the “turmoil” EU citizens in Britain and Brits residing in the EU have been in since the Brexit vote.

As part of the project, the group has collected testimonies from both groups and published two books.

“It tells of the turmoil after the 2016 referendum and the fact our rights haven’t been guaranteed,” she said. “We have been used as bargaining chips and now we risk becoming collateral damage.”

‘Why the lies Boris?’
‘Why the lies Boris?’ Photograph: Vickie Flores/EPA

Meanwhile, Peter Andrews - who was among the 500 people to have travelled to London with the group Bath for Europe - said that Brexit will ruin his children’s future.

“We must have a people’s vote,” he said. “I believe leaving Europe is the stupidest idea I have ever come across. It will ruin my children’s future and it will ruin my future.”

Andrews, who was handing out fake bank notes with Jacob Rees-Mogg’s face on, added that “Britain is being led by extreme right wing fanatics.”

The group issued several notes, including a 350 million note. Rees-Mogg’s face had been chosen to be plastered on a 50 Guineas note because he was trying “to take us back in time,” Andrews said.

Demonstrators implore voters not to be fooled by Jacob Rees-Mogg
Demonstrators implore voters not to be fooled by Jacob Rees-Mogg Photograph: Jack Dredd/REX/Shutterstock

Whether the notes will be accepted as legal tender, a la Banksy’s 2004 Di-Faced Tenner stunt, remains to be seen.

Updated

This is rather good.

The actor and seasoned campaigner Hugh Grant has tweeted his regret that he could not attend today’s march.

Some of Grant’s contemporaries, however, were able to make it.

Updated

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who campaigned for remain but was part of the anti-EU Bennite faction of the party before his rapid rise, is also absent from today’s march:

Updated

Four packed coaches set off at 9am from Birmingham, which voted marginally in favour of Brexit in 2016, to carry people to the march in London.

At 12.30pm they arrived on Park Lane and the passengers, kitted out with EU flags, T-shirts, banners, badges and whistles, immediately swarmed towards the crowd as it inched eastwards towards Westminster.

Flora, 12, who took the coach with her friend Leah, also 12, said: “I’ve come down to join the protest because I don’t agree with Brexit. I have family in France and it’s going to be much harder to see them if we leave.

“I’m really sad because one of my best friends from school has moved to Germany, because she didn’t like what was happening here.”

Leah, meanwhile, said that while her mum had voted to leave and her dad had backed remain, she wanted her future to be in Europe.

Updated

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, will address the crowd later today.

He told Sky earlier that calls for a second vote should not be confused with support for “neverendums”, arguing that politicians could not be trusted to make the right decision.

“I can’t think of anything more democratic or British than trusting the British people,” he said. “Some of the promises made two years ago have not materialised. Nobody was talking about a bad deal, or no deal whatsoever. The public should have a say on the outcomes, with the option of staying in the EU

“Jeremy Corbyn and Labour are quite clear, all the options should remain on the table. But the prime minister can’t get her own cabinet to agree, let alone her party.

“Nobody was saying we won’t have access to the single market, nobody was talking about damaging the NHS, and so we should ask the British public, with the option of staying in the EU.

“As it is now, the NHS is stockpiling medicine, our police are planning for civil unrest, our prime minister can’t get a deal through cabinet. Let the people have a say,” he added.

Updated

Young people lead the march to Parliament Square

Campaigners are being led to Parliament Square by a group of young voters behind a People’s Vote banner.

Emma Stevens and Emily Longman are two of the students leading the march and are among the hundreds of thousands of young people who were denied a vote in the referendum but must now live with the consequences.

Protesters hold placards demanding a People’s Vote
Protesters hold placards demanding a People’s Vote Photograph: Richard Isaac/REX/Shutterstock

Longman, 20, said she was four months too young to vote in the referendum. “We’re both Spanish students due to study abroad next year, but no one knows what will happen with Erasmus funding,” she said.

Stevens, also 20, said: “We don’t want the other European countries to hold the same view [of leaving the EU].”

Updated

While anti-Brexit protesters gathered for the People’s Vote march, Theresa May visited an art exhibition in her constituency of Maidenhead.

Titled Maidenhead and Me, the exhibition featured work by locals with different perspectives of the town.

One of the works was called Bridge Over Troubled Brexit Waters and depicted May carrying a cross over a river of bad Brexit headlines.

Here’s the prime minister perusing the gallery last month.

Updated

Marching under an “Islanders for Europe” sign, Glenn Kobanny said he had travelled from the Isle of Wight this morning to be part of the protest.

The 52-year-old, originally from the island, said: “It’s just a load of nonsense, it was a bunch of lies to begin with.

Protesters hold an ‘Exit from Brexit’ banner
Protesters hold an ‘Exit from Brexit’ banner Photograph: Jack Dredd/REX/Shutterstock

“I’m sorry that people fell for the lies but we speak to leavers as much as we talk to remainers and they’re just as fed up with it as well.”

Updated

Meanwhile, ahead of a Leave means Leave rally in Harrogate, Nigel Farage has told Sky that he would be happy to have a second referendum.

Recent polling has showed that 46% of the public believe that, in hindsight, Britain was wrong to vote to leave the European Union. Conversely, 43% of people thought the UK was right to leave.

Campaigners also hope to unleash a tide of postal protest aimed at MPs by issuing 100,000 postcards emblazoned with the words “Brexit has already become a dog’s dinner – the whole process is going badly wrong. And it’s only going to get worse.”

A spokesman for The People’s Vote said it was time to tell politicians they will not be forgiven “if they allow a bad deal to be rammed through parliament” or “blindfold the public about the long-term cost of Brexit”.

You can read the full story behind today’s protest by our Brexit correspondent Lisa O’Carroll here:

Updated

Jo Steele, who works at St Michael’s and All Saints charity, estimates that
more than 250 people have come down from Oxford to join the march.
“We support the EU, we want to remain in the EU, and we are marching for democracy,” she said. “We need a further referendum on the final deal with the option to remain.”

Jo Steele (left) holds a placard featuring a piechart breaking down the Brexit vote.
Jo Steele (left) holds a placard featuring a piechart breaking down the Brexit vote. Photograph: Aamna Mohdin for the Guardian

She described the possibility of a no deal as a “total disaster”,
warning the UK may well sleep walk into it. “Negotiations aren’t going
anywhere. Theresa May isn’t in control of her cabinet, her party and
the country.”

Updated

Demonstrators are now marching along the eastern edge of Hyde Park.

They are expected to turn on to Piccadilly, before proceeding along St James Street and Pall Mall to get to Trafalgar Square.

Protesters will head down Whitehall, past Downing Street, before eventually gathering in Parliament Square where speeches in support of a people’s vote will be held from 2pm.

Here are some photos from earlier today:

Demonstrators arrive for the ‘People’s Vote March for the Future’
Demonstrators arrive for the ‘People’s Vote March for the Future’ Photograph: Vickie Flores/EPA
A woman holds a ‘Bollocks to Brexshit’ sign
A woman holds a ‘Bollocks to Brexshit’ sign Photograph: Vickie Flores/EPA
Protesters unfurl a banner on Westminster Bridge.
Protesters unfurl a banner on Westminster Bridge. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters
‘Time for a EU turn’, a placard reads.
‘Time for a EU turn’, a placard reads. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters

Updated

The Labour MP David Lammy, one of the most vocal proponents of a second vote, has urged people not to accept the idea that it is impossible to stop Brexit.

Lammy has been increasingly critical of the Brexit negotiations and has publicly lambasted key Brexiteers for alleged conflicts of interest.

Updated

Around 400 protesters made up of British expatriates living in Europe, some of whom travelled from Italy and France, and EU citizens residing in the UK have gathered in Hyde Park to call for the right to vote in a final referendum.

The group have united under the umbrella group the Five Million, which refers to the number of EU citizens in Britain and UK citizens residing in the EU.

Protesters chanted “we are the three million” in English, Spanish, Italian, French and German. They also called for the “Brexit bus to crash”

Kalba Meadows, a coordinator of Remain in France Together, addresses a crowd
Kalba Meadows, a coordinator of Remain in France Together, addresses a crowd Photograph: Aamna Mohdin for the Guardian

Kalba Meadows, a coordinator of Remain in France Together and a member of the British in Europe’s steering committee, travelled from French Pyrenees to join the march.

“I am here for two reasons: I’m here to show how strong we are as a group and celebrate everything we’ve done together over the last two years,” she said.

“I am here because we’ve been disenfranchised from the referendum. I am here to demand that the people most affected by Brexit actually have a say in what happens.”

Axel Antoni, 44, a spokesperson for the campaign group 3 Million, said: “It’s a very specific demand: we want a final say for all. the UK is our home. We are part of it. EU citizens didn’t even have a vote last time, we didn’t have a voice last time.”

Axel Antoni, a spokesperson for the anti-Brexit campaign group 3 Million
Axel Antoni, a spokesperson for the anti-Brexit campaign group 3 Million Photograph: Aamna Mohdin for the Guardian

Updated

Thousands converge on London to demand a final say

Thousands of people from across the country have converged on the capital to demand a final say on the terms of the Brexit deal.

The People’s Vote March is due to set off from Park Lane at midday and will end in a rally in Parliament Square.

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and the celebrity chef Delia Smith are among those due to speak at the event, while the Green party MP Caroline Lucas and the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell tweeted from where protesters are gathering.

Simon Chater is part of the Devon for Europe group, which arranged eight coaches to bring campaigners to London for the event. The 69-year-old from South Devon said: “This is the first time in my life I’ve been political.”

The march comes as the Brexit negotiations enter a crucial stage, with deep splits in both the main parties fuelling uncertainty over whether the government will be able to command enough support in parliament to ratify any deal it agrees with the EU27.

Updated

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