Birmingham: It felt like an evangelist meeting. The room so full that it overflowed into the corridor outside. Speakers chock full of passion. An audience hanging on their every word. Thunderous applause when a point hit home. But this was no meeting of religious fanatics. It was the meeting of Conservatives for a People’s Vote on the fringe of the party conference in Birmingham this lunchtime.

It’s little wonder the pro-Brexit party leadership, fast running out of answers, seems so rattled by the momentum behind this movement. They even banned the inclusion of this meeting in the official fringe guide.

At a conference where the sharp suits and slick smiles of the lobbyists abound, this political meeting felt authentic. The audience were ordinary party members, travelling in from across the country, not just the Remain-voting areas like London, who had come to hear an argument.

Neil Carmichael, who lost his marginal seat of Stroud in Theresa May’s disastrous 2017 general election, spoke with fervour about Parliament’s decision on Brexit this autumn being of “seismic importance” and one that could not be done “without at least consulting the people”. In short, he believed that holding a People’s Vote was essential to give legitimacy to the Brexit outcome.

Former minister Phillip Lee, who resigned from the government in June over Brexit, said that for him the problem was the Brexit deal would be a fudge – neither a full Brexit nor a full Remain; neither side would get what they voted for. He warned the party that in pushing through Brexit it was now on the side of the angry men and not of women or young people.

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Anna Soubry said that it was as business minister that she realised “we had made a terrible mistake” in 2016 because Brexit would be a disaster for our economy and for peace in Northern Ireland. She noted that it was Leave voters who were now saying that we need a People’s Vote.

Justine Greening said she was a pragmatist on Europe who hadn’t come into politics to talk about Brexit. She backed a people’s vote because she couldn’t see any other way out. The issue hadn’t been settled because the Brexiters were still arguing about what Brexit means.

For all the speakers, the enormity of the decision that Parliament has to take was a major factor. Greening said that this was an issue that was above party politics. Carmichael told his former parliamentary colleagues that they must say “the country’s future is more important than my own”.

Back in the conference centre, Brexit hangs over the party like a winter fog. Even the diehard Brexiters are nervous now. The threat posed by the momentum for a People’s Vote could be heard in the Brexit secretary’s over-the-top attack on its supporters. Astonishingly, he claimed that “there was a real sense that Leave won fair and square” in 2016 and that it was influential establishment figures who were now trying to overturn the vote.

What today’s meeting showed was that pro-Europeans in the Conservative Party have shed their inhibitions. There was a passion and energy in that packed room that should make their party leadership think again. Far from trying to ban the supporters of a People’s Vote from being heard, the prime minister should embrace their message. It is only way to save her divided party.

Edited by Luke Lythgoe