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It is difficult to find the right language to express our feelings as Britain leaves the European Union. We know it is a mistake; we are frustrated by the way the decision has been reached and we are genuinely concerned about its likely impact on our society and our prospects. 

But a decision has been reached, and few people wanted to extend the uncertainty and acrimony of the last few years.

The European Movement accepts the fact of the Government’s mandate but continues to believe that Britain’s interests are best served by engaging with our European neighbours to shape the continent on which we all live. 

We have not changed our mind, nor do we believe that – in a democracy – anyone has the right to ask us to do so. We shall watch events as the government pursues its policy and we shall hold them to account for its consequences. 

Brexit has shaped Boris Johnson’s Conservative party and it will be the Prime Minister and his government who are responsible for its consequences. 

Meanwhile we shall campaign in favour of principles which we believe are right:            

- EU Citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in EU countries are entitled to expect that their lives are not disrupted by unnecessary bureaucratic processes;

- We are all entitled to expect that our government will:

•  Defend our economic interests in discussions with our trading partners in Europe and beyond; and
•  Support effective action to address the climate emergency. 

- British Europeans share values and interests with other Europeans, and we are entitled to expect that our government will defend and promote those values and interests in a world in which they are under increasing pressure. 

With your help, the European Movement will be there to ensure that we retain close ties with our friends in Europe. Please help fund this vital work.

Kind Regards,

Stephen Dorrell,

Chair, European Movement UK

The European Movement is proudly led by the grassroots. Therefore, following the election, we surveyed our membership and activists about what our priorities should be going forward.

The results revealed three central themes:

• Ensuring that European values and standards are maintained
• Pursuing a close relationship with Europe 
• Highlighting the impact of Brexit and holding the government to account.  

The European Movement remains committed to building an organization for the future which is worthy of our 70 year history. We will be announcing our next steps in greater detail at the Grassroots for Europe Conference tomorrow and following through over the weeks ahead. 

Our central objective is and always has been to promote a close relationship with our European partners. We recognize, of course, that the Government has a mandate to implement Brexit, but we continue to believe the policy to be a profound national mistake. Therefore, we will exercise our democratic right to campaign, at both national and local levels, for the UK to retain strong ties with the European Union and its member states. 

In keeping with the results of the survey, we will fight for as close a relationship with the EU as possible and to ensure that European values are upheld in law. We will show why we believe that a policy of alignment of rights and standards with the rest of Europe would offer better economic and social prospects to the British people. 

We will, for example, support full British participation in European programmes which:

- Address the global climate emergency;

- Support economic and social development in low income countries;

- Promote exchanges between European universities;

Brexit is clearly now going to happen, but the European Movement will seek to expose its consequences – and hold to account those responsible. 

Please join us as we take this next step. 

Kind Regards, 

Stephen Dorrell

Chair, European Movement UK

The Dubs amendment, submitted by Lord Alf Dubs (a Labour peer who fled the Nazis as a child on the Kindertransport scheme), would allow unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to come and live in the UK.

Boris Johnson stripped the amendment from the EU Withdrawal Bill in December in a callous attempt to use the rights of unaccompanied child refugees as bargaining chips in the Government’s negotiations with the European Union.

However, today the Lords voted to restore the Dubs amendment, and the issue will return to the Commons tomorrow.

The European Movement is proud to join Safe Passage UK in calling on MPs to restore the Dubs amendment and protect child refugees post-Brexit.

Write to your MP and tell them that the rights of child refugees should not be on the negotiating table.

Lord Heseltine puts country before party and endorses three People's Vote candidates in marginal constituencies

Yesterday, Lord Heseltine endorsed Chuka Ummuna (candidate for Cities and Westminster), Monica Harding (candidate for Esher and Walton), and Sam Gyimah (candidate for Kensington). All three seats are on a knife-edge, and will the crucial to the fight for a People's Vote. Despite being a lifelong conservative, Heseltine said “There are men and women whose commitment to this country - our country - mean that they have torn up their traditional loyalties”. Watch the full speech below!

Read more

We all vote for different reasons. Many people in the UK vote for the same party every time because we inherently agree with that party’s values. Many others vote for the candidate - we listen to what each candidate has to say and we vote for that person. Others still vote on the basis of the policies of the party, switching between them on the basis of each election.

Read more

We believe that only the British people are entitled to take the most important decision of modern times.

The government is determined to stop them. They say the final decision was taken in 2016.There was a narrow majority that divided the country, achieved with a Salesman’s pitch of lies and distortions. Remember what they said.

Money for the health service; Turkish immigrants; Trade deals falling into our laps. 

I tell you - salesmen with such scant concern for the truth would finish behind bars.

Today’s electorate would not buy this: 

So there is a new argument: civil unrest. Those who once put their faith in the referendum now threaten violence if the people are asked again

This is the language of the mob. Europe in my lifetime has seen the price you pay to regain control from the mob.

Another argument; it’s too late; the deal is done; just get on with it. There are many who fall for this; the quiet-lifers; the make the best of it bunch; the don't knows and the don't cares.

I reject so cavalier an approach.

We are fighting for British influence in a fast changing world. We are fighting to give our children and grandchildren their place in that world.

There is only one argument that really drives their opposition to a referendum: they think they will lose it. 

Far from serving us, they are frightened of us. Not only of us- they are frightened of our Parliament.

The strategy has remained crystal clear. Theresa May did all she could to deny Parliament a meaningful vote. I know. I lost the Tory whip in the House of Lords.

Three weeks later Parliament, on our behalf, won a game-changing victory.

That is why we are here.

Boris Johnson followed the same approach but tried to sugar the pill - Brexit  buried in a general election.  The indigestible hard truth of Brexit  sugared with offers of more police, bigger defence, more hospitals.  Lollipops all round.  Suck it but don’t see it

But Parliament did see it.

So Parliament had to go. But Parliament would not go. The government had acted unlawfully.

‘Let’s get Brexit done’  is the latest attempt to frog march us where we don’t want to go.

It is the greatest deceit of them all. Brexit is not adecisiontaken for a parliament or for the next decade. It is a creeping paralysis, where yesterday’s nostalgia distorts tomorrow’s opportunities.  

The very existence of our United Kingdom now hangs by a thread.

Brexit will not bring us together. It is the wedge  that will drive us apart.

Europe, our largest home market  will embroil us in years of detailed negotiation.  Every decision will now be decided by unanimous votes of the remaining 27.

Trade deals take so long because they can be hijacked by small groups in any one of those parliaments or even local authorities, leaving us at the mercy of every European pressure group. 

They call it taking back control.

They dream of Donald Trump as some newly discovered benefactor when it is clear that the only special relationship he knows is ’America first’.

Yes we will save our contributions.  The price -  our economy already  poorer by amounts that dwarf any savings.

Yes we will be free to deregulate. But why do they never tell us what deregulation they propose?  

The hungry advocates of rampant capitalism promise faster growth .

Who will pay the price for that I ask? It will be our poorer citizens - our more remote communities - those least able to protect themselves. Certainly no Conservative government in which I served would contemplate such options.

New trade deals will open new world markets. So why are we not doing so already? Look at Germany’s success.

Much of our exports comes from foreign manufacturers who invested here to sell to  Europe. They already have manufacturing capacity across the other growth markets.

Or - worse - they are European companies like Airbus that will repatriate production back to Europe.

They promise that our waters will be restored to British fishermen.

Some of us remember the Cod Wars. Then the Royal Navy had some fifty destroyers and frigates  at their disposal. Today we have about 20 and not all of those are at sea  at any time.

You have come from all over the country. From all parties and none. All generations, every class and creed. You’re British and proud of it.

That is the heart of the matter.

Pride in our history, our traditions, our culture, commits us  to the partnership of modern Europe.  Our voice has echoed across the centuries in a very different Europe. A Europe of bitter nationalism. A Europe of deep religious divide. A Europe of tyranny and bloodshed.

We have helped to create a Europe of peace. A Europe where national pride and loyalty can be pooled in a shrinking world to enhance the power and influence of us all.

In coming today you are marching into history.

Not the history of yesteryear but the history of tomorrow;

Do not lower your sights. Do not avert your gaze.

Look straight. Look up.

March on.

Today, it was announced that Boris Johnson and the EU have agreed to a deal. Let me say in no uncertain terms: this new deal will have catastrophic consequences for both the economy and the union.  

Just last year, Boris Johnson said that ‘no Conservative government’ could sign up to a border on the Irish sea. Yet that is exactly what his disastrous hard Brexit proposal does. Johnson’s Brexit plan risks ripping apart the very fabric of our precious union seam by seam. As a lifelong Conservative, this deal goes against everything that my party has traditionally stood for.

It is time to decide what kind of future we want for Britain.

It is clear that the prime minister cannot be trusted. The people, not Boris Johnson, must have the final say on Brexit.

Just seven months ago, I said these words in parliament square at what was one of the biggest protests in British history:

“Walk tall. Keep the faith. Go back to your villages, your towns and your cities. Tell them you were here. Here, In parliament square. Outside the buildings that inspire parliamentary democracy. Fighting for our tomorrow. In peace. Secure. The bitterness and bloodshed of Europe’s past buried with its history.”

Since then, European Movement activists have heeded my call. They’ve handed out an astounding 1.5 million leaflets in villages and cities across this great land. They’ve arranged 173 coaches from communities across the UK.

On Saturday, we will make history again. We will once again come together in parliament square and say with one unified voice: we demand a People’s Vote. Parliament will be sitting. History will be made. The time is now.

We must stop Boris Johnson and the hard-right cabal currently squatting in Downing Street. Will you donate to help our activists put a stop to this hard-line right-wing agenda?  

Together, we will make this march even bigger than the last. Together, we will fight for Britain’s place at the heart of Europe. Together, we will alter the course of history.

Join us in demanding a People's Vote by Marching with us this Saturday:

Peoples Vote March

Or tell Boris Johnson that:

We demand a People's Vote