Nigel Farage leads pro-Brexit march to London
March 16, 2019
A "Leave Means Leave" pro-Brexit march to London began its two-week, 435-kilometer (270-mile) journey from Sunderland on Saturday.
The group of about 100-200 hardcore Brexiteers was led by former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage, who has accused politicians of "betraying the will of the people."
The march comes after a tumultuous week for Prime Minister Theresa May. Her Brexit bill suffered a second defeat in Parliament on Tuesday and British lawmakers voted on Thursday to ask the European Union for a delay in the nation's withdrawal.
Read more: Brexit: Is the EU willing to grant an Article 50 extension?
"If you have seen what's happening in Parliament this week, we may well not be leaving the EU," said Farage, who was the one who pressured former Prime Minister David Cameron to call the historic 2016 Brexit referendum.
"It is beginning to look like it doesn't want to leave and the message from this march is if you can walk all over us we will march straight back to you."
Arrival on Brexit day
Farage does not plan to participate in the whole march. Those who do will not undertake the entire journey on foot, covering some of the distance by bus.
The march is supposed to finish at Westminster Palace in London on March 29, the day the UK was supposed to leave the European Union.
The location of the starting point had to be changed last minute for what organizers said were security reasons. The group was nonetheless met with pro-EU protesters, singing a song telling them where they could shove Brexit. The marchers responded by calling the counter-demonstrators "traitors" and losers."
The march route will take the group through pro-Brexit heartlands of England. Sunderland, an industrial city which borders the North Sea and the starting point for the march, voted 61 percent to 39 percent to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.
dv/aw (AP, Reuters)
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