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Nigel Farage launches two-week nationwide 'Brexit Betrayal' march

Protest will see marchers travel from Sunderland to London in time for Brexit day 

Benjamin Kentish
Political Correspondent
Thursday 28 February 2019 11:27 EST
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Nigel Farage says he would rather 'go on holiday' than vote in a second Brexit referendum

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Nigel Farage is to launch a nationwide march of angry Brexiteers, who will spend two weeks crossing the country to express their fury at Theresa May's "Brexit betrayal".

The event, organised by the Leave by Leave campaign, will see activists march from Sunderland and London between 16 and 29 March.

It will culminate in a rally in Parliament Square on the day Britain is due to leave the EU.

The "Brexit Betrayal" march will be led by Mr Farage, the former Ukip leader, and will see protesters pass through towns including Hartlepool, Pontefract, Doncaster and Wellingborough.

Organisers said it would highlight public opposition to the government's handling of Brexit.

Mr Farage said: “The Westminster elite are in the process of betraying the British people over Brexit. All of us who want Britain to be a great country once again accept that we must be prepared to stand up for what we believe in and fight for our independence.”

John Longworth, chairman of Leave Means Leave, added: “The Westminster elite has had over two years to implement Brexit and instead has done everything in its power to prevent it. Despite 52 per cent of voters choosing Brexit, only 24 per cent of current UK MPs voted to leave. An extension of Article 50, thereby kicking the can further down the road, is completely unacceptable.”

It comes days after Mr Farage vowed to take a holiday instead of campaigning during a possible second referendum.

Commenting on the possibility of another public poll, he told Sky News: “I have to tell you in those circumstances I wouldn’t campaign and I wouldn’t vote, because it wouldn’t offer me Brexit.”

Asked if he would abstain, he said: “I would go on holiday. It would be an outrage. Remain shouldn’t even be on the ballot paper.

“But if we are forced into this, it would have to be Remain or a clean Leave."

The announcement of the "March for Leave" drew mocking comparisons on social media with the Jarrow march, which saw protesters travel from the town of Jarrow on Tyneside to London in 1936 to complain about unemployment.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, a supporter of the Best for Britain campaign for a fresh referendum, said: "This is another ludicrous idea from Britain’s best-known charlatan.

"A fourteen-day march sounds rough, especially one led by Nigel Farage. He’ll march his troops to the top of the hill where he’ll ask them to dive off the no deal cliff edge."

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