Petition updateGive People a Final Say on Brexit DealWith parliament in deadlock, we will march again to demand a Final Say on Brexit
Christian Broughton Editor, The IndependentUnited Kingdom
17 févr. 2019

Today, The Independent announces a second march for a Final Say on Brexit.

Working in partnership with the People’s Vote campaign we will hit the streets of London on Saturday 23 March to deliver a message loud and clear: the people of Britain must be allowed to sign off on any Brexit deal, or to reject the whole process.

To sign up for the march, click here.

And to stay up to date with what’s going on with the march and the essential Brexit news (don’t worry, we’ll spare you from every twist and turn), sign up to our new Brexit in Brief email, here. If you already have a registered account with The Independent, sign in first and choose to receive the email under the ‘Account details’ tab.

This march, called “Put it to the People”, is vital for Britain and our democracy. We are weeks away from the Brexit deadline, and the deadlock in parliament is no one’s idea of a sound democratic process. The dangerous brinkmanship may even get us a catastrophic no deal at all. And none of the compromise deals being discussed measure up to the promises made back in 2016. 

It’s been a while since we last emailed you about the Final Say campaign. Having delivered more than a million signatures to Downing Street, and marched with an estimated 700,000 through London last year, it was right to give parliament and Theresa May the chance to make progress. But, well, look at where we are now.

That’s why we’re stepping up the Final Say campaign once again. 

To those who say we don’t respect the result of the last referendum, that’s simply untrue. After Britain voted to leave, politicians had two years to show progress before The Independent launched the Final Say campaign. We waited to see if the result of the first referendum could really be delivered along the lines that the campaign groups set out.

But last July, with negotiations over a Brexit deal showing little sign of progress, and peacetime Britain realising the need to stockpile medicines, it was clear that no one was going to get a Brexit that lived up to the promises of 2016 – and so Final Say was launched.

We all know more now than we did in 2016 about EU withdrawal. If voters were to back it again, knowing far more about the realities of the Brexit we face, then we will respect that as the Final Say in the matter. But there needs to be a proper democratic process.

Instead, the prime minister is running down the clock. There is so much heroic talk of holding strong in the negotiations and waiting for the EU to back down; in reality the impact of this brinkmanship is to pressure MPs in our own parliament to back a deal they know does not deliver a future that anyone voted for. 

No, given the importance of the decision for us all, it must be the people who decide.

There is still time to make it happen. If we show politicians that support for a Final Say is still strong, they will have to listen – and accept, at the last moment, what they have known all along: that only a second referendum can give this process legitimacy.

And so we march again.

On 23 March, assembling from midday on Park Lane, we will walk to Parliament Square to show our passion for getting this issue right – and giving the people their say.

We hope you, our readers and our supporters, will join us. Your support has been amazing. Now we must keep going to get the result we need – a Final Say on Brexit.

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