Tens of thousands of protesters staged a rally, urging Britain to rejoin the European Union. The protesters called Brexit a failure as they marched on Parliament Square. The centre of London was covered in blue European flags.
As per police estimation, around 15,000 protesters were in Westminster, central London on Saturday (October 22) during the planned protests. As quoted by Evening Standard, Peter Corr, the rally co-organiser, said: “It’s patriotic to want to re-join the EU.”
As quoted by the news agency Reuters, one of the protesters Jules Beck said: “It’s just all a mess. The fact the economy is tanking is largely to do with leaving the EU.”
The march took place while the ruling Conservative party was looking for a new leader after the departure of Liz Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister.
Under the pressure of turmoil in financial markets brought on by economic proposals, Truss resigned after 44 days in office. Several critics have blamed Britain’s departure from the EU for poor growth.
Although, people are protesting, but the pro-EU protest on Saturday was significantly less than those preceding Britain’s withdrawal when attendance was in the hundreds of thousands.
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“We should negotiate a deal, get the Customs Union back, the single market, and progress from there,” as quoted by media reports, activist Steve Bray said on being asked how Britain could re-join the EU. Bray has been protesting against leaving the EU since 2019.
One of the protesters (unidentified) said: “Because I think it’s one of the biggest mistakes in peacetime that the UK has ever made – to leave the EU. I think we have really hurt ourselves economically but also in terms of basic politics. It really hurt families, communities, the country. I am really worried about the UK getting split up because of it.”
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