Dear all, I am sure you'll be pleased to know that on Friday last (2 February) Terry Maher and Viv Pointon from Labour Against Brexit, and I, met with Keir Starmer MP, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, at his London office. Keir made us very welcome, and we had an open and constructive discussion about all our concerns. We are hoping to meet with him again quite soon. Obviously, one of the first things I did was to give Keir our petition. We talked about the concerns expressed in the petition, and in your own added comments, and considered the implications of the now-acknowledged strong link between authoritariansim (eg death penalty) and the Leave vote. Likewise, we suggested that the focus by Labour MPs on NE Leave voters may have been mistaken. To quote John Curtice: " ... Ensuring Labour’s survival in the North of England and the Midlands is not just a question of strengthening the party’s appeal to the so-called traditional Labour voter who voted to Leave. There are simply not enough of them for that alone to be a viable strategy. Rather, it is also about retaining the support of the majority of Labour voters in the northern half of England who voted to Remain. For without them, the party really will be in trouble." [ http://ukandeu.ac.uk/is-labours-brexit-dilemma-being-misunderstood/ ] Keir has promised to consider these and all the other points in our petition, along with several important further considerations offered by Terry and Viv, and the ideas in the Labour Against Brexit [ @Labour4EU ] open letter. He has undertaken to get back to us fairly soon. So where do we go from here? Firstly, if anything building support for our petition is now even more important; we need to show that many people, in and beyond the Labour Party, are desperate for Jeremy Corbyn to do the only right thing, and to join with others to #StopBrexit. And secondly, this is self-evidently a very good time for individuals such as yourselves to contact MPs, MEPs, journalists, and anyone else with influence, to say it is critical that those on the progressive side of politics work together and take responsibility for saving the UK from Brexit. Not everyone yet understands that this awful situation can be reversed. That's the most important thing to get out into general discussion. We do NOT have to go through with Leave. We can, if enough of us understand that, pull back before it's too late. Thanks so much for all you are doing; and let's keep going. Very best, Hilary @Hilary4RemaIN https://www.facebook.com/groups/525790270942902/ PS The book Keir is holding is IN LIMBO - the story of many people whose lives are being tragically disrupted by Brexit: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Limbo-Brexit-Testimonies-EU-Citizens/dp/1912395010