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In 2016, 17.4 million people voted for the UK to leave the European Union.

But there are thousands who have changed their minds and would vote differently in a second poll, according to the founder of a group uniting Leave voters who would now vote Remain.

Andy, who did not want to give his surname, created RemainerNow in December 2017 after noticing people talking about how they had regretted their Brexit vote.

The 34-year-old, who himself voted Remain, claims he has now spoken with thousands of people who either voted Leave and changed their mind, or who did not vote at all and now wish they had.

He begun sharing their stories on Twitter under the handle RemainerNow and the words: “It’s okay to change your mind.”

There are now thousands of people who engage with the group, which can be found on social media channels, via their podcast, and out at Brexit marches.

Andy, from south Buckinghamshire, believes from those he has spoken to that a second referendum would trigger a very different result.

“There was this gap in the debate and some powerful stories out there that needed to be brought together and shared where people can find them,” he told the Standard.

He and the person he runs the accounts with, Victoria, have heard from people dotted all over the UK, from retirees to those who were too young to vote in 2016.

Andy says a careful vetting process is carried out before people become RemainerNow campaigners to make sure they are not a Remain voter trying to “shift the narrative”.

He said the debate takes on a different tone when members of RemainerNow engage with Brexiteers, as opposed to those who have always backed Remain.

“They get a very different reaction in a Facebook exchange or on the streets,” he said.

“Their response is: 'Oh you're not just telling me I was an idiot. You're saying that you voted this way and you're saying to me what changed your mind'”.

Andy said there are three common threads RemainerNow members follow.

“The first is they saw money for the NHS, they weren't that engaged with politics and thought: ‘that sounds great I want that.’ Then when they saw that that's not happening, that's what change their mind,” he said.

“Then there’s the people who did it as a protest, they didn't like the government at the time, and they just did it because they thought ‘I'm going to give them a kick, often thinking that Leave wasn't going to win.’

“The third is people who listened to claims that we would keep our role in the single market, keep our relationship on an economic side but would just have a bit more political freedom, the Norway-type voters in this respect."

RemainerNow will meet with cross-country and cross-party MEPs in Brussels on October 17 to represent this “gap in the debate”.

Here are some of those people on why they changed their views:

Emma-Jane Manley, 39, from Market Harborough, voted Leave

"I wasn't a firm Leaver or a firm Remainer, I was just thinking what would improve our lives. I was a teacher working full time and a parent of two children, one of whom is disabled. Life was really busy and also really hard.

"I was in a constant battle to get services for her, to get support for her and all of this was in the background and I didn’t really pay much attention to politics.

"There was a Boris bus and people said they didn't believe the number on it but that sort of general impression that we would have more money for our services, for our NHS, for our people at home, struck a chord with me and that's the way I voted.

"I changed my mind within the first 12 months.

"At the time they were saying: ‘Oh it's going to be the easiest deal in history, it's going to be no problem at all, and then we just started to see it unravel. We saw the Brexit ministers resign, they just kept toppling and it just became really clear that there was no such amazing deal.

"That's when I started to read more, pay attention more and listen more and I just realised what a massive mistake it was and we were giving up so much.

"I had no awareness of the issue this presented to peace in Northern Ireland. I didn’t know that my vote jeopardised that and when I learnt about it - I was in shock. I had voted for better NHS and more funding into services for the UK. I would never have voted leave if I had understood that it would jeopardise the agreement that I had long taken for granted.

"Earlier this year Change UK launched and I applied to be one of their MEP candidates and I was selected. I then stood for them for the East Midlands because I felt so strongly about it."

Callum Tennant, 20, London, campaigned for Vote Leave

"I was too young (to vote), so I campaigned for Leave. I really distanced myself from quite a lot of the elements of the campaign: the intense immigration conversation and things like that, but my reason back then was that I did get behind the whole ‘take back control’ thing.

"I thought we could make our own laws that are specifically tailored to the UK, that would be more beneficial to the UK. I thought we could make trade deals that were beneficial and tailored to UK needs.

"I just thought it was the more patriotic option.

"I think in the referendum time you kind of did just get sucked into a world full of your own algorithms and news.

"When you came down on one side, every time you logged on to your Facebook you would see things and go: ‘Oh yea, I agree with that’ and you slowly become more eurosceptic or the other way round.

"All my friends were pro-Remain. It was very, very challenging but it was almost like the more isolated I was the more I dug in.

"A year after the result, I started getting nagging doubts. I removed myself from politics altogether, which wasn't easy considering I was studying politics at uni. I just felt so disillusioned. I was a member of the Labour party and the Labour party had gone under (Jeremy) Corbyn who was a person I had campaigned against.

"I was thinking: ‘Oh I'm not sure I agree with this anymore’. I became really depressed when it came to politics.

"I was just really not into it, which is so rare for me, because the rest of my life it was what I lived and breathed."

Simranjeet Riyat, 23, east London, voted Leave

"Barking and Dagenham, where I live, is often cited as one of the most deprived areas inside the UK. Growing up, Westminster, despite being 40 mins from us, felt very distant. As things kept getting worse, especially after the financial crisis, I could see that none of us were being heard none of us were being listened to and our problems were being exasperated.

"I studied hard and went to a top tier university where we had a debate just two or three weeks before the referendum between (former UKIP MP) Douglas Carswell and (Tory MP) Anna Soubry.

"Mr Carswell ended up making some really coherent, strong points on a potential future vision for Britain after leaving the EU: increasing animal welfare standards, free trade agreements, that immigration wouldn’t be too hampered by what might happen.

"The potential for Barking and Dagenham to get more money, for a government that was dedicated to building its infrastructure, that was dedicated to investing more into people instead of siphoning away money to a foreign organisation. It seemed like a great opportunity at the time.

"Admittedly I did not do as much research into this whole thing as I could have. I was spending all my time studying and thinking: ‘this seems fine’. I never considered things such as the single market, the customs union, or the impact it would have on the Irish border.

"After the result, I was quite happy initially. I went to continental Europe for the first time in 10 years in August 2017. For me, at least in my emotional reaction, was: ‘oh well maybe the EU wasn't so bad after all but we've already left so, it's happening.'

"I was still at university in July 2018 when the Chequers agreement was released and it was absolutely horrid. It was nothing that was promised in the referendum and that's when I really started paying attention to this whole thing. We had to realise as well that Vote Leave had cheated.

"Conducive to our democratic tradition if one side cheats then they do not have a legitimate claim to enact their policies, especially considering that they obfuscated a very complicated question."

James Mellor, 41, Halifax, West Yorkshire, voted Leave

"My dad was an ex-Conservative councillor so it was sort of inbuilt in terms of my political upbringing. I got involved in helping a business group in Yorkshire campaign to vote Leave. My name is on a letter from those two to three hundred businesses, sent to The Telegraph. To my shame, it's there.

"For me it was that I didn't want further political integration and that's the way things seemed to be going. I was quite happy with the status quo.

"Lots of people, politicians, assured me that even if we were to leave we would still stay in the single market and customs union and if that were to become an issue there would've been a separate vote on that. I foolishly believed that.

"When I was voting Leave, I thought that Remain would win because that's where all the polls were going at the time. It was almost like a protest vote.

"Quite soon after the result, I changed my mind. I feel stupid because my wife is German and I hadn't fully or at all realised the emotional impact on my wife and then my family situation going forward, I just hadn't really looked at those ramifications.

"As soon as it went that way (Leave), all those promises and untruths just started cracking apart and these people just disappeared and scuttled off.

"It's just been twisted to such a horrible extent that as soon as anyone says ‘17.4 million’, I'm screaming at the TV or newspaper or Twitter saying: “No, that figure is way wrong now!”

Carol, 63, Brighton, voted Leave

"I looked at the polls at the time and they were predicting a safe Remain win. I had a lot of personal issues in the six months leading up to the vote so I hadn't done any research on Brexit at all I'm ashamed to say.

"Where I was working at the time, we had flyers about that the transatlantic trade investment partnership and we were warned that this could cause problems for workers rights, for the NHS, for the environment. It all sounds a bit familiar now but back then, it was obviously before Donald Trump was elected, Trump was still a standing joke, and I thought stupidly, oh I'll give the EU a bloody nudge because, you know, I'm quite scared of the partnership agreement thing

"So that's it. At the very last moment in the polling booth I decided to vote Leave and literally from the next day - after seeing Nigel Farage gloating on television - I felt sick to my stomach. I know a couple of other people at work had done the same thing and they felt very similar to me.

Brexit protests - In pictures 10 show all Brexit protests - In pictures 1/10 Pro-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster PA 2/10 Activists demonstrate during an anti-government protest calling for the Prime Minister's resignation AFP/Getty Images 3/10 A pro-Brexit protester shouting at anti-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament PA 4/10 British police officers patrol Whitehall during an anti-government protest AFP/Getty Images 5/10 Anti-Brexit protestors gather on Whitehall REUTERS 6/10 An anti-Brexit protestor arrives on Whitehall REUTERS 7/10 An activist holds a placard during an anti-government protes AFP/Getty Images 8/10 Activists demonstrate during an anti-government protest calling for the Prime Minister's resignation AFP/Getty Images 9/10 A pro-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster PA 10/10 A pro-Brexit protester (left) speaks to commentator Paul Mason outside the Houses of Parliament PA 1/10 Pro-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster PA 2/10 Activists demonstrate during an anti-government protest calling for the Prime Minister's resignation AFP/Getty Images 3/10 A pro-Brexit protester shouting at anti-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament PA 4/10 British police officers patrol Whitehall during an anti-government protest AFP/Getty Images 5/10 Anti-Brexit protestors gather on Whitehall REUTERS 6/10 An anti-Brexit protestor arrives on Whitehall REUTERS 7/10 An activist holds a placard during an anti-government protes AFP/Getty Images 8/10 Activists demonstrate during an anti-government protest calling for the Prime Minister's resignation AFP/Getty Images 9/10 A pro-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster PA 10/10 A pro-Brexit protester (left) speaks to commentator Paul Mason outside the Houses of Parliament PA

"Three days later, I thought - I've got to do something. So I wrote to my local MP, Caroline Lucas, explaining what I did, why I voted Leave, and why I regretted it and (asking) could we have a second referendum.

"I wasn't political pre-2016 and now I’ve found myself doing a speech in Parliament Square in front of thousands of people. How did this happen?

"There are millions of people who have changed their minds, not all of them are vocal, my husband is one but he would never go on a march. There are people who voted Leave and regret it but they're not the kind of people to go and say that loudly because quite a few of them live in Brexit households."

Andrew, 61, Acton, voted Leave

"My main reason was that I felt that, because the UK was not a member of the Euro, and the interest of the UK and the EU could diverge from time to time, I thought there might have to be a drive to greater political integration in order to make the Euro work.

"For that reason I thought the UK might benefit from slightly looser relationship with the EU.

"I did worry that, if there was a decision in the referendum to leave, then that might provoke an increase in nationalism or xenophobia.

"I thought about that and spoke to people and, in the end, I felt that actually a rise in nationalism was at that time a problem across Europe, not just in the UK. If we did leave the EU then it might in some way take the pressure off.

"But fairly soon after the referendum I started to notice things I hadn't seen before in London. I especially remember an occasion seeing a drunk, obviously retired soldier, in the street outside a cafe and he was yelling at obviously European visitors who were sitting having coffee saying things like: 'We voted for Brexit, you lot are going home'.

"That worried me.

"Then at the Conservative party conference that autumn, Mrs May seemed to me to be interpreting the referendum result in a way which was certainly not consistent with the way I had voted.

"She used that phrase: “citizens of nowhere”.

"There was a proposal by the Conservatives at that time that there should be a register of foreign workers. I found that very chilling, watching her.

"And then she produced her red lines which included an end to freedom of movement and she was claiming that all this was backed up by the referendum result and this is completely inconsistent with the way I'd voted.

"So finally I made my decision and I started telling people that I had changed my mind at the end of 2017.

"I regret the way I voted, I think it turned out to be a disaster. It’s nothing like what was promised by Vote Leave, who were saying: ‘We're going to hold all the cards, it's going to be very easy to get a great deal, no responsible government could trigger Article 50 without a plan”.

"If you think now, three years later, it's completely different and now we've got a government seriously talking about a no-deal Brexit."