At least 100,000 people took to the streets on Saturday as part of the largest-ever demonstration of support for a new referendum over Britain’s final Brexit deal.
With more businesses poised to issue dire Brexit warnings this week and senior Tories already drawing up plans to soften British Prime Minister Theresa May’s exit proposals, organizers of the march yesterday said it showed Britain’s departure from the EU was not a “done deal.”
A former aide to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, several Labour MPs and pro-EU campaigners from across Britain took part in the demonstration, marking two years since the Brexit vote.
Photo: EPA
Organizers said that people from every region and walk of life were among those who took part in the march down Whitehall.
Conservative supporters marched alongside Labour voters and Liberal Democrats during the protest, which saw angry denunciations of the chaos that has ensued inside the government since the Brexit vote.
Labour’s leadership also came under pressure at the march for refusing to back a second public vote.
There were chants of “Where’s Jeremy Corbyn” from the crowd. The Labour leader was on a visit to a Palestinian refugee camp.
Anger on the streets at May’s handling of the Brexit negotiations is being accompanied by a renewed push from industry to ensure that trade with Europe is not disrupted as a result of leaving.
More prominent manufacturing firms are set to issue warnings about Brexit negotiations within days, after Airbus SE and BMW AG broke cover to say that they would reconsider their UK investment plans unless a Brexit deal was reached keeping Britain closely aligned with Europe.
Senior Tory MPs are already saying that the government would face another parliamentary crisis over Britain’s post-Brexit trade arrangements within weeks unless May gives clear indications that she backs such a deal.
In a rare intervention, Lord Glendonbrook, the Conservative peer who ran the BMI airline for decades with a fleet of 45 Airbus aircraft, said that the delays in securing a tariff-free deal were handing a “Brexit dividend” to Britain’s economic rivals in Europe.
He said the government’s divisions were leading Britain into “very treacherous waters.”
“Major companies in Europe who have put the UK in their supply chain have been clear,” he told the Observer. “In a competitive world, any kind of movement of goods, which would suffer any form of tariff, would clearly mean they would have to review very carefully whether they could really afford the cost of those terms.”
One senior business figure said further public concerns were on the way and EU countries would benefit from an exodus of UK-based businesses.
“There are people waiting in the wings if they think they can intervene without serious consequences from the government,” he said. “The trade that goes overseas probably won’t change the economies of the countries it goes to, but it will add up to a big impact on the UK’s economy.”
Further concerns are due to be voiced by the automotive industry this week, at a gathering of hundreds of industry figures at a conference held by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
While there was relief in Downing Street last week that it avoided any defeats on the EU withdrawal bill, senior Tories believe a more serious rebellion is already on the cards over the trade and customs bills, set to return to the House of Commons early next month.
“Battling about standing orders always felt like a Westminster bubble-type issue — rebelling on trade matters to constituents jobs, as Airbus demonstrates,” one former minister said.
Meanwhile, senior Brexiters are attempting to push May into a tougher negotiating stance with Brussels.
British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson and other leading Cabinet Brexiters have come under renewed attack from business leaders for pushing for a hard Brexit.
Johnson, who has been frustrated by the prospect of the UK being tied closely to the bloc, demanded a “full British Brexit” that would allow the country to set its own rules and trade policy.
However, Juergen Maier, the chief executive of Siemens UK, said his interventions were “incredibly unhelpful” and joined calls for a deal that would not hit the flow of trade between the UK and mainland Europe.
“The government is getting on with delivering the Brexit people voted for and we are working hard to ensure that our future outside the European Union is brighter and better,” a Downing Street source said.
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