Europhile activist Gina Miller has decried the Prime Minister as “inflexible, harsh and closed-minded” for promising to deliver Brexit, before alleging that an “emotional spasm” caused Brits to vote to leave the European Union (EU).
The political activist, who rose to fame dragging Brexit through the courts, accused Theresa May of being “out of step” with Britain and “robotically repeating mantras” at a two-day conference for people determined for Britain to stay chained to Brussels.
During her opening speech on Friday, at the London event, she said: “Just because Mrs May has called a snap election does not mean we all have to snap into line and jettison common sense.
“By being inflexible and harsh, close-minded, deaf to others’ opinions and concerns about Brexit, Mrs May is preventing the country from healing and recovering.
“As a country we value fairness and reasonableness and compromise for the greater good — Mrs May is out of step with that, robotically repeating mantras of ‘Brexit means Brexit’, and the words ‘strong and stable’ being trotted out just rings hollow.”
Miller, who complained today in the Guardian that she receives online abuse as a result of her endeavours to stop Britain leaving Europe, insisted that “extreme Brexit is not a done deal” — and urged the public to vote tactically.
“Mrs May seems to want no opposition on Brexit — the official opposition, it seems, is obliging. It is therefore up to us as individuals and a civil society to do so,” she added.
Speaking ahead of the conference, she added: “We’re going to have to hear and engage and respond to all those people who voted Leave and find out why they voted Leave and understand that cry.”
“Because I do think a large populous voted Leave because they wanted someone to listen to them. “They were crying out, it was an emotional spasm, Brexit.”
Mrs Miller’s speech at the Convention at Westminster’s Central Hall opened an event which heard from a collection of Remain campaigners including former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell and anti-Brexit enthusiast Bob Geldof.
The former rockstar blasted Brexit as “the rise of English nationalism”, and claimed that the prospect of Britain leaving the EU made him fear war would break out on the continent.
“Will I vote for my children to go to war or potentially my grandchildren – I will not ever,”
Novellist Ian McEwan, meanwhile, told the audience that there should be another referendum on Brexit in 2019, when “1.5 million oldsters, mostly Brexiters, [will be] freshly in their graves.”
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