Number Of Participants Of London Rally For 2nd Brexit Vote Reaches 1Mln - Organizers

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th March, 2019) A total of 1 million people took part on Saturday in a rally in favor of the second referendum on Brexit that was held in London, the People's Vote group that organized the march said.

"Thank you to everyone who joined the #PutItToThePeopleMarch today. All 1,000,000 of you, please get home safe," the group wrote on its Twitter page.

The march started from the Park Lane street and ended near the parliament's building where its participants demonstrated posters calling for holding the second referendum on the country's withdrawal from the European Union.

Shahrar Ali, Green Party selection candidate for the European Parliament, told Sputnik that the rally was triggered by the lack of people's confidence in the government's ability to organize Brexit.

"I think the main reason people are marching is that there's a complete lack of confidence in this government's ability to organize a resolution to Brexit. There's a complete absence of leadership by [Prime Minister] Theresa May and massive uncertainty now across the country, and unquestionably this helps all those who didn't want to leave in the first place in terms of giving them momentum that even Brexiteers have to see," he said.

From Ali's point of view, the European leaders want the United Kingdom to remain in the bloc in the long term.

"My sense is that European leaders have outmanoeuvred her [May] again, but the good news is that my sense is that they actually want us to stay in the long run. They don't want to hang us out to dry and they actually distinguish between the British electorate and the woeful lack of leadership in the government. They are probably leaving their options open so that we can have the best possible resolution," Ali stressed.

He added that, given the current political crisis in the United Kingdom, there was a real possibility that Brexit would not take place at all.

The UK-EU Brexit talks are in a stalemate as the UK parliament refused to support the negotiated deal. The European Union has agreed to grant the United Kingdom a delay to the original departure date of March 29. The United Kingdom has until May 22 if its parliament passes the withdrawal deal next week, and until April 12 if it does not. At the same time, the European Union indicated it would not reopen negotiations on the deal agreed with the UK government.