Where Now For Remain?

General Election Aftermath

It goes without saying that we are all devastated by the result of the General Election on 12 December. Clearly, we all need time to absorb the implications and to discuss the situation with our fellow Remainers, before picking ourselves up and working out how to move forward.

Where now For Remain?

However, we cannot afford to let the disillusionment of our supporters turn to disengagement. We have built an extraordinary movement over the last 3 years – the strongest pro-European movement in Europe. We must preserve what we have built and move quickly, but with care, to providing a new sense of purpose for our campaigners.

The Conference

With this in mind, we arranged a national conference, held at Central Hall, Westminster, on Saturday, 25 January 2020 – to which all pro-European organisations and individual campaigners were invited – to take stock and start to formulate a strategy for our movement going forward.

We are made contact with all of the other pro-EU campaign organisations, including the European Movement, Best for Britain, the People’s Vote constituent organisations, as well as non-aligned campaign groups. We wanted to bring all stakeholders together.

Draft Programme

During the conference we covered the following topics:

  • What Were They Thinking? – public attitudes to Brexit and Boris Johnson
  • How We Lost Again, What Can We Learn? – the grassroots view of the post-referendum campaign
  • The Post-truth Age – can we bring trust & honesty back to politics?
  • A Hostile Environment – defending EU citizens in the UK & UK citizens in the EU
  • Brexit Isn’t “Getting Done”! – keeping the public informed as the Brexit chickens come home to roost
  • Let’s Stay Friends – building new links & partnerships with Europe
  • Democracy In Crisis – how do we achieve a parliament that represents all the people?
  • Getting Ourselves Organised – who is going to lead the fightback?

Speakers

We carefully selected speakers, not on the basis of celebrity, but on the basis of their ability to help us to achieve our objectives i.e. contributing insight and practical ideas for the way ahead for our movement.  Speakers included:

  • Naomi Smith, CEO of Best for Britain
  • Irina von Wiese, Liberal Democrat MEP (London)
  • Polly Toynbee, Columnist, The Guardian
  • Richard Corbett, Labour MEP (Yorkshire & Humber)
  • Professor AC Grayling, Philosopher
  • Stephen Dorrell, Chair, European Movement UK
  • Ros Taylor, Remainiacs Podcast & LSE Brexit Blog
  • Denis MacShane, former Europe Minister
  • Elena Remigi, Founder, In Limbo Project
  • Mike Buckley, Director, Labour for a Public Vote
  • Dr Mike Galsworthy, Scientists for EU
  • Henry Stannard, Project Marshall
  • Sue Wilson, Chair, Bremain in Spain
  • Steve Bray, SODEM
  • Sharon Leclerq-Spooner, Pro Europa