Organisers announce plans for the ‘biggest political protest in British history’ to stop Brexit

The next People's Vote march will take place in October in London . Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz / Barcroft Media via Getty Images. - Credit: Barcroft Media via Getty Images

The People’s Vote campaign has announced a date for what is expected to be one of the biggest public protests Britain has ever seen.

The march for our democracy, for our country and for our future will take place in London on October 19 – just 12 days before Boris Johnson plans to take the UK out of Europe with a No-Deal Brexit that no-one voted for in the last referendum.

Organisers had planned to march a week earlier but, despite permission from the authorities, moved the date to avoid clashing with an annual fundraising event in Hyde Park to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The new date of October 19 will give the people of the UK the chance to make their voice heard just 24 hours after the end of the European Council meeting in Brussels – ahead of a tumultuous few days that will have a huge and historic impact on our country’s future.

David Lammy MP, a leading supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, said: “We’ve got a new date for one of the biggest and perhaps most important demonstrations our country has ever seen.

“We’re moving it back a week to October 19 to avoid clashing with a fundraising event organised by the brilliant Great Ormond Street Hospital partly because we don’t want anything to distract attention from our march.

“We’re changing the date because we’re determined to change the course of history. This is a march for our future, our country and our democracy.

“Indeed, this Brexit crisis has now come down to a simple question about whether we live in a democracy: can we allow Boris Johnson to force No Deal – or another scorched earth form of Brexit – on our country, without all of us having our voice heard?”

A spokesperson for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity welcomed the date change. They said: “We’re grateful to the organisers of the People’s Vote march for their consideration in changing the date of their event to Saturday 19th October 2019. This means our annual RBC Race for the Kids event, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, can go ahead as planned and raise vital funds to help seriously ill children from across the UK who are cared for at the hospital.”

The People’s Vote March earlier this year was one of the biggest in British history, beaten only by protests against the Iraq War in 2002, when more than a million took to the streets.