Anti-Brexit Activist Vows to Continue Protesting Until UK Rejoins EU

LONDON, ENGLAND: Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray protesting outside of the Houses of Par
Hollie Adams/Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Steve “stop Brexit” Bray has pledged to continue his protest outside of the Houses of Parliament until the UK rejoins the EU.

After initially conceding defeat and pledging to hang up his blue and gold hat after December’s landslide victory for the Conservatives, Mr Bray has told the BBC he is preparing for the “longest protest ever”.

The rare coin dealer from Port Talbot, Wales, has been protesting outside of Parliament in Westminster every day that MPs have sat in the Commons since September 5th, 2017. He was often heard in the background of news interviews hollering “stop Brexit”, at times propping up one of his anti-Brexit banners in the background during live television broadcasts.

The Remainer will, however, be scaling back his protests to once a week on Wednesday — the day Boris Johnson takes part in Prime Minister’s Questions.

Asked why he dedicated nearly three years of his life to shouting two words at the home of British democracy, Mr Bray said he wanted to show people that “we don’t have to accept it.”

“It is not a question of if or when — we will join the EU. It could be 10 years, it could take 50 years, it could turn into one of the longest protests ever,” he said.

“We need the government to know we are not giving up and not going away,” he added.

According to his Twitter page, Mr Bray launched “Sodem”, the “Secure Our Destiny Europe Matters” which inspired his daily protests.

While even Tony Blair accepted that Brexit would happen and told fellow Remainers to “face up to one simple point: we lost”, just two days before the UK left the EU a poll revealed that only 30 per cent of Remainers had reached “acceptance” in the five stages of Brexit grief.

The YouGov poll revealed that nearly one-in-five (19 per cent) of Remainers were still in denial, refusing to believe that people in the UK wanted to leave the EU. Sixteen per cent were still angry, 25 per cent were depressed, and a surprisingly optimistic three per cent still thought that “Brexit can be averted if the Remain side continues to put its case to the public”.

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