Risingbd Online Bangla News Portal

Dhaka     Thursday   28 March 2024

Hundreds of thousands march calling for Brexit cancellation

5 || risingbd.com

Published: 15:57, 23 March 2019   Update: 15:18, 26 July 2020
Hundreds of thousands march calling for Brexit cancellation

International Desk: Hundreds of thousands are marching through central London calling for another EU referendum, as MPs search for a way out of the Brexit impasse.

Organisers of the "Put It To The People" campaign say more than a million people have joined the march before rallying in front of Parliament.

It comes after the EU agreed to delay the UK's departure from the EU.

PM Theresa May is coming under pressure to quit after saying she might not put her Brexit deal to a third vote by MPs.

She wrote to all MPs on Friday saying she will ditch plans to put the deal to another so-called meaningful vote if not enough MPs support it.

Downing Street sources have denied reports in the Times newspaper that discussions are under way about a timetable for the prime minister to step down.

Unless her deal is passed by MPs, the UK will have to come up with an alternative plan or else face leaving without a deal on 12 April.

Crowds were told the initial count showed more than a million people had turned up - putting it on a par with the biggest march of the century, the Stop the War march in 2003.

Meanwhile, a record-breaking online petition on Parliament's website calling for Brexit to be cancelled by revoking Article 50 has attracted more than 4.3 million signatures.

As the number of signatures on the petition continued to climb, its creator Margaret Georgiadou said she had "received three death threats over the phone", and a "torrent of abuse" via her Facebook account.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said the petition could "give oxygen" to the campaign for another Brexit referendum.

But veteran Conservative MP John Redwood told the BBC: "We know that 16 million people wanted to stay in the EU, and some of those would still like to stay in the EU, and within that quite a few would like to have another go and have another referendum - but it was always a minority."

Speakers at the rally have included Labour's deputy leader, Tom Watson, Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, former Tory turned independent MP Anna Soubry and former attorney general Dominic Grieve.

Ms Sturgeon said now was "the moment of maximum opportunity" to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

The march comes as the pro-Brexit March to Leave, which started in Sunderland a week ago, continues towards London.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage re-joined the March to Leave in Linby, near Nottingham, on Saturday morning telling around 200 Brexit supporters that Mrs May had reduced the nation "to a state of humiliation".

Speaking from the top of an open-top bus, Mr Farage said those gathering for the People's Vote march in London were not the majority, before leading the crowds through the village.

Source: BBC


risingbd/Dhaka/Mar 23, 2019/AI

risingbd.com