The future under Boris Johnson is terrifying – but a re-energised and truly unified Remain campaign will end the nightmare

The results of an election with a foregone conclusion are finally in. The outcome was inevitable, and yet the horrific reality of Boris Johnson elevation to the role of prime minister induces deep emotions of frustration and anger, as well as dread and disbelief. Despite the Tory leadership contest – an intense exchange of nationalist one-upmanship – being the preserve of a tiny fraction of the British population, today’s result will have profound ramifications in the lives of every individual and every community within the United Kingdom.

Three years on from the EU referendum, ours is a country in which hate crimes are rising, inequality soaring and austerity biting – especially in the lives of those who need our help the most. The UK needs a leader with a bold vision and a comprehensive plan to address rampant inequality and impending climate catastrophe. A leader who stands before the wanting eyes of millions and points to a future where nobody is excluded. Let’s be clear, Johnson is not – and will never be – that leader.

As suggested by his storied history of hurtful insults, racial slurs, and engaging in repetitive casual dishonesty in the face of scrutiny, Johnson exemplifies the kind of privilege enjoyed by a minuscule and heavily overrepresented elite in the UK. In addition to dismissing the experiences of people who don’t look like him, his repeated use of divisive language alienates even the Conservative Party’s core allies – business – and advocates for a no-deal Brexit that would be catastrophic for individuals, industry and the environment. It is no wonder that his only apparent political strategy seems to be to buddy-up to Donald Trump in the hope of securing an NHS-gutting, chlorinated chicken-importing suckers’ trade deal with the United States of America.

At best, the next few weeks and months will be tumultuous. At worst, we are facing a constitutional crisis of governability and the further entrenching of divisions in British life. With Johnson at the helm, the future is frightening.

To counter this, we must construct an alternative political project that brings people together. We must do more than unify Remainers. We must build a new way of listening to one another, on the street, in the pub, in the coffee shop and around the kitchen table. Conversation is at the heart of our British and European values and it is through conversation that we will construct a cohesive movement with an expansive message that represents the UK’s full and rich diversity.

In order to move forward, we must recognise where we have failed in the past. We will need to work harder to demonstrate to those who are undecided what EU membership means for them. We need to show that the EU not only affects the lives of women, single parents, people of colour and those in former industrial areas and mining towns for the better, it can do so much more too.

As we navigate uncharted and tempestuous political waters, the way we discuss the EU and the way the Remain campaign operates must change once and for all – or risk being drowned out once more.

Remainers have been labelled as “snowflakes”, the “metropolitan elites”, and “middle-class remoaners”. Those within the Remain camp will recognise that this is a fantasy. From the north to the south, Wales to Anglia, Scotland to the south east, in our respective hometowns of Liverpool and Sheffield, the movement is as diverse as Britain itself.

The crude 52-48 distinction was always a convenient lie which occluded the 3 million EU citizens residing in the UK and the millions of under-18 Brits who could not vote but whose future will be shaped by our eventual decision. It is time for us to make our movement one which represents not just those who are uncritically supportive of the European Union, but those who are unsure, those who have changed their minds, and those who simply want a more positive future for themselves, their neighbours, and their children.

We need to show that the Remain campaign is about protecting our shared future. We want our children to breathe in clean air, drink clean water, and benefit from a free-at-the-point-of-use National Health Service. Frankly, it is this simple: staying in the EU is the best way to guarantee that future. The EU also ensures that part time workers or those on agency contracts have workers’ rights, that new parents be guaranteed paid leave, and that our environmental standards remain sufficiently high to avoid our food poisoning us and our children. Thanks to the EU, we are currently taking leadership in working fast with other nations to tackle the climate crisis. Without this work, our impending extinction as a species is inevitable.

Remain is the side of the argument with a future.

Ultimately, if Johnson’s bluster holds true, we face the prospect of leaving the EU with no deal for which he has zero parliamentary mandate. We cannot allow this to happen. Those who will suffer most are those who are already hit the hardest – we would be plunged into a recession with an economic hit to the tune of £30bn. At the same time, food bills and mobile phone charges would rise, while medicines become scarcer and more expensive. But we will be accused once again of engaging in “Project Fear”. That is why the Remain movement must come together as a grassroots initiative and a positive force. Its faces and voices must come from a full range of ethnicities, classes, ages, and accents. True Remain unity is not a campaign of parties, but one of people. When we build this joyful campaign for change, we will succeed in bringing with us all those disaffected with the social and material reality of the era of austerity. And only then will we win a people’s vote on remaining in the EU.

We, the people, may no longer have control over how to set the stage for this obscene Brexit-Bojo drama. But if we come together as people, we will have the last word on how it all ends.

Magid Magid is a Green MEP for the Yorkshire and Humber region and Alexandra Phillips is a Green Party MEP for south-east England