Independent editor Christian Broughton has delivered more than 1m signatures to Downing Street in support of his title’s Final Say campaign backing a so-called “People’s Vote” on the Brexit deal.
Broughton was joined by Labour MP and People’s Vote spokesperson Chuka Umunna, Conservative MP Justine Greening and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas to hand in the petition to the Government today.
The Independent began its campaign for a second referendum on the deal in July this year with a digital edition front page. Within minutes of a petition being set up on Change.org, more than 20,000 people had backed it.
“We started this campaign because we feel strongly this is the right thing to do,” said Broughton.
“The process and the proposed outcome simply do not match either of the visions people voted for two years ago. We need to check back in with the voters and ask: ‘Is this what you wanted?’.
“For more than a million people to back any newspaper campaign is an astonishing and undeniable symbol of how much people care and how many people agree with us.”
Umunna added: “We built this campaign at a point where people were dismissing it as an unrealistic prospect, to one where over a million people signed this petition…”
The Independent also won praise from Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable MP, whose party backs a call for a second referendum on the Brexit deal.
Cable said: “I think The Independent deserves a lot of credit, they’ve kept this demand going with the People’s Vote before anybody else I think – they were out of the traps and arguing for it and are now winning the argument.”
Picture: Lucy Young/The Independent
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
