Mass London protest demands second referendum on Brexit

London, United Kingdom – Hundreds of thousands of people are marching through central London to demand a final say on Brexit.

As the impasse over a way forward continues in Westminster, the original Brexit deadline of March 29 has now been pushed to April 12.

Protesters want the government to put any solution to the deadlock to a second referendum.

Dubbed “Put It To The People”, the march set off at noon (12:00 GMT) on Saturday and is expected to end with a rally near the Houses of Parliament at about 2pm (14:00 GMT).

It is organised by the People’s Vote campaign, which includes more than 100 grassroots groups advocating for a public vote on the Brexit deal with the European Union, and is supported by a number of pro-European organisations.

Pro-remain MPs from across the political spectrum were in their attendance, while tens of coaches descenedd on London from across the country.

‘Catastrophic consequences’

The last People’s Vote march in October was one of the largest in decades, attracting an estimated 700,000 people.

Among the high-profile figures who announced their participation is London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

“We are now days away from falling off a cliff edge with catastrophic consequences,” Khan said. “It’s time to take this out of the hands of politicians and put it back to the people.”

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“No matter how you voted in the referendum, we can all agree that the path we are being forced to follow is not in the national interest,” he said.

About 17.4 million Britons – nearly 52 percent of voters – opted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, while just over 48 percent voted to remain in the bloc.

The vote redefined the country’s politics, drawing new fault lines within Britain‘s two main political parties, Labour and the Conservatives, as well as its people.

Critics of a second referendum say it would be even more divisive than the first.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, Prime Minister Theresa May told the British public: “I am on your side.” She reiterated her determination to deliver Brexit and blamed parliament for the deadlock.

Her words sparked a backlash among MPs who have rejected the withdrawal agreement she negotiated with the EU twice since January.

Petition against Brexit

An online petition to cancel Brexit by revoking Article 50 went viral the following day. By Saturday morning, it had gathered nearly four million signatures.

With only days to go to the UK’s scheduled departure date of March 29, EU leaders agreed this week on a dual-deadline mechanism to grant the UK some extra time.

The UK will leave on May 22 if the British parliament passes the deal. If it doesn’t, it will have until April 12 to indicate a way forward, which could include asking for a longer extension and agreeing to hold European Parliament elections.

If the deal is voted down again, the government could hold a series of indicative votes to see where consensus lies in Parliament, and a second referendum could be among the options.

However, Parliament rejected an amendment calling for a second referendum during a series of votes in mid-March.

While the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will not take part in the march, the party officially supports a second referendum. The party is mulling over endorsing a plan by two of its backbenchers that would see MPs vote for May’s deal on the condition it is then put to a public vote.

Recent polls have suggested that if there were a second referendum, Britons could vote to remain in the EU.

A snap poll this week found nearly two-thirds of respondents would prefer remaining in the EU over leaving with May’s deal.

If the options were remaining or leaving without a deal, remain would still win but by a smaller margin of 43 percent. Almost half of the respondents said they would support another public vote.

A few hundred people began the first leg of a ‘March to Leave’ walk [Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]

Meanwhile, a “March to Leave” walk organised by former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage, considered one of the architects of Brexit, took off from Sunderland last weekend.

A few hundred people began the first leg of a two-week protest due to end in Parliament square on March 29, accusing politicians of “betraying the will of the people” over Brexit.

While Labour supports a “softer Brexit”, including closer economic integration with the EU, the hard Brexit wing in May’s own Conservative Party has been voting down the deal over the so-called backstop – a protocol of the withdrawal agreement to avoid a hard border in the island of Ireland, which they believe would tie the UK to the EU’s trade rules indefinitely.

Alongside Scotland, Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU in 2016.

“In 2016, Northern Ireland wasn’t mentioned and it’s now become what the government calls a major stumbling block,” Doire Finn, the 24-year-old Northern Ireland coordinator of Our Future Our Choice, a youth campaign group supporting the People’s Vote campaign, told Al Jazeera.

The border in the island of Ireland is set to become the only land crossing between the EU and the UK after Brexit.

There are concerns that a no-deal Brexit would have serious consequences for peace in the region, as well as on the lives of residents like Finn who live in the border area. 

“Because I live so close to the border, I don’t like my life or the people who have built lives on a border that is completely frictionless, to be called a stumbling block,” Finn added.

“It’s important that there are Northern Irish people [at the demonstration] to have their voices heard in a more representative way than they are currently in Parliament.”

“Young people in particular are going to have to live with the consequences of Brexit for the longest.”