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Activist Gina Miller appeared to wipe away tears as she launched an impassioned case against Brexit.

The pro-EU campaigner accused Theresa May of being out of step with Britain and "robotically repeating mantras" on leaving the bloc.

Ms Miller, who was behind a successful legal challenge over Article 50, has launched a tactical voting initiative to support General Election candidates opposed to a hard Brexit.

During her opening speech on Friday, she said: "Just because Mrs May has called a snap election does not mean we all have to snap into line and jettison common sense."

She added: "By being inflexible and harsh, close-minded, deaf to others' opinions and concerns about Brexit, Mrs May is preventing the country from healing and recovering.

"As a country we value fairness and reasonableness and compromise for the greater good - Mrs May is out of step with that, robotically repeating mantras of 'Brexit means Brexit', and the words 'strong and stable' being trotted out just rings hollow."

Ms Miller continued that an "extreme Brexit is not a done deal" and called on the public to use their votes in the upcoming election.

"Mrs May seems to want no opposition on Brexit - the official opposition, it seems, is obliging - it is therefore up to us as individuals and a civil society to do so," she added.

A number of leading figures from across the political spectrum will take to the stage for the discussion event at The Convention at Central Hall, Westminster.

Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, a panellist in one of the debates, accused Mrs May of calling the election to try to exploit weakness in the Labour Party.

"This is the most surreal election I have ever, ever been involved in," he said.

"It is being held for reasons which are not being stated - she (Mrs May) had a mandate for Brexit, she didn't have that much trouble getting Article 50 through."

He added: "She's exploiting the weakness of the Labour Party to try to get a huge majority to deliver a hard Brexit and all the other crazy stuff she wants to do like bringing back grammar schools, and we are helping her to do that."

He admitted that few people within Labour think the party will do well when voters go to the polls on June 8.

Mr Campbell continued: "I am incredibly angry that having spent most of my adult life getting to a position of helping the Labour Party go from being a losing organisation to a winning organisation - that we're now going into a General Election where very, very few people inside or outside the Labour Party think we have any chance of winning - that is unsustainable."

Sir Bob Geldof slammed Brexit as "the rise of English nationalism", described Boris Johnson as an "unprincipled oaf" and branded leading Leave campaigner Michael Gove a popularist.

The rocker and long-standing political activist said he fears a European war within a few generations if Britain leaves the EU.

"Will I vote for my children to go to war or potentially my grandchildren - I will not ever," he added.

He said he thinks there is need for reform in the EU and called for Britain to spearhead that change as a member.

"We must engage, engage forcefully and engage with a plan and we will change Europe from within it," he continued.