‘We are extremely grateful to Nigel Farage and GB News for promoting our march.’
Brexiteers were left fuming last weekend after audience members attending the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms were seen on camera waving EU flags.
Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP, said it was a “disgraceful” display, as he took to X – formerly Twitter – to berate a “disgraceful and misguided BBC messing up a British tradition.”
Spearheading the chorus of contempt was Nigel Farage. Speaking on his GB News show after the airing of the programme, the former UKIP leader and so-called ‘Mr Brexit,’ said: “I’m afraid, we do have this small group of people in this country, who hate the country, hate its flag, hate its history, hate its shared commonality and identity. Mercifully they are but a small minority.”
In the next breath, Farage said: “I know they’re having a rejoin march in London in a couple of weeks’ time…. The best thing we can do is ignore them.”
National Rejoin March (NRM), the non-profit organising the upcoming event, was thrilled about the promotion of their event, all be it on GB News.
“Thanks for plugging National Rejoin March II @NigelFarage – you unpatriotic thing, you.
‘And thanks @GBNews for the airtime, #RejoinEU,’ they posted on X.
The EU flags seen on the airing of Last Night of the Proms were handed out by Thank EU for the Music, a group aimed at raising awareness of the impact Brexit and the loss of freedom of movement has had on musicians. According to the pro-Europe campaigners, “Tens of thousands of music lovers have taken our free European flags into the Royal Albert Hall for each Last Night of the Proms in solidarity with musicians who feel (like countless others) the destructive impact of Britain’s recent isolation from Europe.”
In response to Farage’s recent comments, Peter Benson, NRM press officer and campaigner with Thank EU for the Music, told LFF: “We are extremely grateful to Nigel Farage and GB News for promoting our march.”
Peter Corr, a lorry driver and co-founder of NRM, reminded how the group are not a minority, as more than 60 percent of the UK wants to rejoin the EU, and over 80 percent of under 25s want to rejoin.
“We are not the minority Nigel, you are. See you on Saturday 23rd September for National Rejoin March II.’
Momentum is growing for the second National Rejoin March. The first event took place in October 2022.
This year’s march includes a diverse line-up of speakers, including Femi Oluwole, Mike Galsworthy, Steve Bray, and MEPs Guy Verhofstadt and Terry Reintke.
Over half the speakers are under the age of 35. Young students are set to give their own personal stories, including Stella Mavropoulou, who will talk about her experiences as a foreign student in the UK and the complications that Brexit has brought to her life in Britain.
Urging everyone to come to the march, Peter Corr says:
“Rejoining the EU is the patriotic thing to do as it will benefit everyone.”
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
Image credit: National Rejoin March I – YouTube screen grab
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