{"id":74979,"date":"2026-06-20T17:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T17:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/74979\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T17:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T17:16:19","slug":"brexit-branded-unprecedented-continuing-disaster-as-marchers-call-to-rejoin-eu-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/74979\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit branded \u2018unprecedented continuing disaster\u2019 as marchers call to rejoin EU \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brexit has been branded an \u201cunmitigated, unprecedented, continuing disaster\u201d by former Labour leader Lord Kinnock.<\/p>\n

He joined demonstrators who marked the 10th anniversary of the UK\u2019s exit vote with a march calling to rejoin the bloc.<\/p>\n

Police on the ground estimated that around 1,500 people set off from central London\u2019s Temple station on Saturday to Parliament Square in Whitehall behind a banner which declared \u201cWe Want Our Star Back\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople during a National Rejoin March in London, marking 10 years since the Brexit referendum (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

The National Rejoin March (NRM) was filled with people carrying EU flags and wearing blue and yellow hats and T-shirts that said \u201cCitizen of Europe\u201d and \u201cRe:Union\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"King<\/a><\/p>\n

The UK voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in June 2016, called by then-prime minister David Cameron.<\/p>\n

Lord Kinnock would not give his opinion on the Labour leadership as Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer faces pressure to set out plans to quit Downing Street over the weekend after Andy Burnham stormed to victory in the Makerfield by-election.<\/p>\n

But he told the Press Association said: \u201cWhat I hope is that as their (the Labour Party\u2019s) efforts to re-establish a new relationship continues \u2026 I hope they will intensify and accelerate those so that by the time of the next election the Labour Party is in a position, together with other parties, to say \u2018if you vote for us you are voting to make every effort to secure a return of normality in this continent of ours\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"(Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

Earlier he spoke to the crowd at a rally in Parliament Square, telling them: \u201cBrexit has been an unmitigated, unprecedented, continuing disaster. The economic damage is huge. Stupendous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The public knows this because they can see it in their pockets, in lost opportunities, political damage and being left in an \u201cinsecurity of not being part of a collective sovereign series of democracies that are comparable with ours, sharing our values\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

Lord Kinnock said: \u201cWe used to be, not very long ago, a significant participant in deciding the condition and the development of our continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we are an applicant for involvement in the security arrangements \u2013 what a change in status, importance, and effectiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this has happened against a political and economic backdrop of US president Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs, Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine and all democracies, China\u2019s advance and a Middle East that is still in turmoil.<\/p>\n

To cheers, he added: \u201cWe are stuck in Brexit. We are trapped, as outsiders, from the rest of our continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anything else was ever doing this much political and economic harm to our beloved country, the demand to end it would be unstoppable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MadeleinaMadeleina Kay, 32, (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

Newlywed Madeleina Kay, 32, is trying to move from Sheffield to be with her husband Johann in Germany.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI think Brexit was a travesty for the United Kingdom and it has also had a personal impact of me, a huge amount.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see a better future for everyone in the UK, but especially those young people who did not \u00a0get a say in the referendum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really important that we make our cause visible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more that we campaign, the closer we will get to the ultimate goal which is being a member of the EU again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ProfProf Arttu Rajantie during a National Rejoin March in London (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

She said the ramifications of Brexit are now being felt in terms of the economy, trade, small businesses, to rights and freedoms, and \u201ceven if it\u2019s just trying to go on holiday and standing in that goddamn queue at the airport\u201d.<\/p>\n

The words \u201cBrexit sucks\u201d was drawn on a homemade banner in the shape of a lollipop while other placards read \u201cI don\u2019t want to take my country back, I want to take my country forward\u201d and also \u201cRe Join EU for trade and jobs\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another banner from Croydon for Europe\u00a0said \u201cThe UK should be more like Crystal Palace, Champions of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Professor Arttu Rajantie, a Finnish theoretical physicist who lives in Reading, Berkshire \u2013 and works in London, stood holding a banner which said \u201cScientists for EU\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Brexit had \u201ca big effect\u201d on scientific research and saw a loss of access to European funding.<\/p>\n

Professor Rajantie added\u00a0there has been a loss of freedom of movement that is \u201creally hurting our recruitment and building links with new partners in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe can\u2019t recruit young European researchers in the same way as we could because they have got 27 countries where they can go without any barriers whereas to come to Britain, they have to get a visa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is high cost and high bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very complicated and \u00a0so they just choose to go elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ItIt is 10 years since the Brexit referendum (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

NRM organiser Clare Hall said: \u201cI would just like to see full rejoin\u00a0\u2013 I don\u2019t feel like we have got nothing to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brexit has been branded an \u201cunmitigated, unprecedented, continuing disaster\u201d by former Labour leader Lord Kinnock. He joined demonstrators…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[234,39,40,3046,40957,40955,381,40956],"class_list":["post-74979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-brexit","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-police","tag-re-join","tag-south-east","tag-uk","tag-yorks-humber"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}