On the afternoon of Tuesday 2nd October, the Students for a People’s Vote Roadshow hit the University of Exeter, hosted by the national youth campaign For our Future’s Sake (FFS) in collaboration with Exeter Students for Europe, Inspire EU, and Exeter University Liberal Democrat Society.
Students and members of the local community filled the M&D room in Devonshire House to listen to speakers voice their arguments for a people’s vote on the UK’s Brexit deal. Local pressure groups joined with prominent politicians to talk at the event, amongst them Labour MP Chuka Umunna; Deputy Leader of the Green Party, Amelia Womack; and Conservative MP Anna Soubry.
Local pressure groups joined with prominent politicians to talk at the event.
The campaign groups Devon for Europe, Inspire EU and the Exeter Liberal Democrat Society were also represented at the Roadshow, by Anthea Simmons, James Dart and Ian Bristow respectively.
The aim of the gathering was to engage young voters in pressuring the government to allow a People’s Vote on the terms of the UK’s Brexit deal, which the event description explained would “ensure that young people get a say on the biggest issue facing our future”.
The aim of the roadshow was to “ensure that young people get a say on the biggest issue facing our future”.
Speaking at the event, Umunna appealed to the audience; “this campaign is about you […] and if we can’t get you involved in this campaign, we may as well pack up and go home”.
On several occasions, speeches referenced the fact that 71% of 18-24 year olds voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum. Event organisers also repeatedly urged attendees to participate in the People’s Vote March on Westminster on Saturday 20th October.
Umunna: How, by giving a vote to people, are you depriving them of a choice?
Anthea Simmons, spokesperson for Devon for Europe, praised the “brave” politicians spearheading the FFS campaign for “putting their country before their party”.
Umunna’s own London constituency, Streatham, returned the highest remain vote in the UK in 2016 at 80%. Speaking of the result, Umunna said “we have pretty much the same problems, economic and social, of many of the communities that voted leave. But the point is this: we came to a different answer to the problem”.
Like many of the other speakers, Umunna went on to criticise the logic of the argument that another referendum would ‘thwart the will of the people’, posing the question “[h]ow, by giving a vote to people, are you depriving them of a choice?”
The Roadshow has been travelling around the country over the past week, having arrived in Manchester on 27th September before its appearance in Exeter this week, and continuing to stop in Hull on 3rd October.
