The main groups opposed to a hard Brexit are joining forces under the leadership of Chuka Umunna to push for the public’s voice to be heard on Theresa May’s final deal to leave the EU.

The groups, representing more than 500,000 members, are putting aside their differences to work together as the grassroots coordinating group (GCG) at a time when polling suggests the public’s appetite for a second referendum is growing.

Those involved in the group include Conservative MP Anna Soubry; Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green party and MP for Brighton Pavillion; and the Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson.

The landscape of pro-European groups has been fractured since the referendum, with different bodies campaigning for everything from staying in the single market to a second referendum or getting parliament to overturn the result.



Umunna, a former shadow business secretary, said there had been a growing recognition that the groups needed to coordinate as it becomes more realistic to push for the public to get a say on the outcome of the Brexit process.

“It’s been a joint effort,” he said. “Our challenge in the pro-European movement was bringing those people who don’t want to see Brexit happen at all together with those who accept it may happen but want a soft Brexit.



“What unites everybody is they want the people to have a say on the form of Brexit. You could argue there was a mandate from the 2016 referendum for us to leave the EU, a majority of people who participated voted that way. But what we don’t know and the thing for which we have no mandate was how we leave the EU and the form of Brexit we end up with.

“All of the groups are united in their determination that the people have got to have a place at the table in this process and it should not be dictated by a ministerial elite in Westminster.”

GCG will include the all-party parliamentary group on EU relations, Open Britain, the European Movement, InFacts, Scientists for EU, Healthier IN the EU, Best for Britain, The New European and a string of others.

May has promised that parliament will get a vote on any final deal she produces in the autumn, but Umunna said there could then be different mechanisms for letting the public’s voices be heard.

“For some people it is ensuring their parliamentarian isn’t sidelined in this process,” he said. “For other people they would want the people getting a final say through a general election. My own personal view is we should be open to the people having a final say on the deal.”

He said it did not amount to a second referendum, because the country would be getting a vote on May’s final deal when in possession of the facts about what leaving the EU would look like.

Umunna said this was an increasingly likely prospect. Leading leave campaigners including Nigel Farage and the Leave.EU group have conceded there could be another referendum and EU leaders have recently made it very clear that the UK could change its mind, potentially by revoking article 50.

Asked whether the public mood has to turn more against Brexit before there can be another vote, he said: “There has not been a huge shift yet, but the tectonic plates are moving. And given the volatility of British politics, who knows where we will be in May and who knows where we will be in the autumn.”

The Labour MP, who has shifted his own position on the issue, said he had previously explained why he voted for article 50 in parliament, but that it had now become clear that the UK would not get the benefits of Brexit leave campaigners promised in 2016.

Umunna said the group was primarily a grassroots organisation that would start preparing for a ground campaign, but its support base involves MPs from across the political spectrum, including Labour, Conservative, SNP, Lib Dem, Green and Plaid Cymru.

The coalition will be represented by a new generation of politicians, in contrast to the old remain campaign associated with establishment figures such as David Cameron, John Major, Tony Blair and Nick Clegg.

Soubry said: “It is not for us to undo this EU referendum result, and we cannot. It has to be the people, and this has to be led by the people. The people are entitled not just to know the facts about Brexit but to have a say.”

Another referendum would be most likely if May were to prove unable to win parliament’s endorsement for her Brexit deal. Both Labour and the Conservatives are opposed to a second referendum and in favour of implementing the result of the 2016 vote, as well as leaving the single market and customs union.

Labour, however, is under pressure to soften its position as so many of its supporters, especially younger voters, are in favour of remaining in the EU.

Jeremy Corbyn is preparing to hold an away day to discuss Brexit policy with key members of his shadow cabinet early this month, with some figures around him pushing for the party to accept permanent membership of a customs union after leaving the EU.



• This article was amended on 2 February 2018. Because of an editing error, an earlier version said incorrectly that the 2016 referendum vote “includes leaving the single market and customs union”.