_Leave_Means_Leave%2527s_%2527Save_Brexit%2527_Bus_at_Parliament_(46179759541).jpg) | |
| Formation | July 2016 (2016-07) |
|---|---|
| Founders | Richard Tice,John Longworth |
| Dissolved | 31 January 2020 |
| Purpose | United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union |
| Headquarters | 55Tufton Street, London |
Region served | United Kingdom |
Key people |
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| Website | leavemeansleave |
Leave Means Leave was a pro-Brexit,[4]Eurosceptic politicalpressure group organisation that campaigned and lobbied[5] for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union following the 'Leave' result of theEU referendum on 23 June 2016. The campaign was co-chaired by British property entrepreneurRichard Tice and business consultantJohn Longworth. The vice-chairman wasleader of the Brexit Party,Nigel Farage.
The organisation has described itself as a 'campaign for aclean Brexit'.
Co-founded byRichard Tice andJohn Longworth, according to theBBC, the organisation grew out of theVote Leave campaign during the2016 EU referendum.[6]
As of June 2020, following thewithdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, the home page of the group's website declared that it had "achieved its aims when we left the EU on 31st January 2020".[7] The website was subsequently deactivated.
After a period of inactivity, the group's website was reactivated in 2022. As of July 2023, the group's website was still up and running.[8]
On 30 September 2017, during theBrexit negotiations, the campaign wrote a letter to Prime MinisterTheresa May.[9] Four ex-cabinet members, including former Chancellor of the ExchequerNigel Lawson, as well as formerBrexit ministerDavid Jones,[10] signed the letter alongside the rest of the board.[11] The letter highlighted concerns including support for considering a no-deal scenario.[12][13]
The letter had multiple significant supporters outside of the organisation, including former Conservative leaderMichael Howard, who said he shared its "aspirations".[14]
Nigel Farage and the Leave Means Leave campaign organised a march in 2019, setting off fromSunderland in thenorth east of England on 16 March and culminating in a rally inParliament Square,London on 29 March, the dateBrexit was originally due to occur.[15][16][17][18]
The march set off fromSunderland on Saturday 16 March 2019 with roughly 100 marchers heading toHartlepool led by Farage.[19] Supporters of Leave Means Leave had been asked to pay £50 to sponsor or to join the march from Sunderland to London and it had been claimed that more than 350 people had signed up although only 50 had agreed to walk for the full 14 days.[20] The marchers did not plan to walk the whole route.[20]
At the start of the march, Nigel Farage was quoted as saying: "We are here in the very week when parliament is doing its utmost to betray the Brexit result ... It is beginning to look like it doesn’t want to leave and the message from this march is if you think you can walk all over us we will march straight back to you.”[21]
The following day roughly 150 marchers headed toMiddlesbrough but Farage did not participate.[22] Farage rejoined the march the following Saturday inNottinghamshire attended by roughly 200 marchers,[23] drawing unfavourable comparisons to the hundreds of thousands attending the anti-BrexitPeople's Vote March in London on the same day.[24][25]
The March for Leave then proceeded throughLeicestershire andBuckinghamshire with its numbers reduced to around 100.[26][27]
The march was accompanied throughout by an advertising truck displaying anti-Brexit messages paid for by theLed By Donkeys campaign.[28][29]
On 29 March, the march arrived inCentral London, to join the Leave Means Leave rally inParliament Square.[30] The rally was reported to have attracted "thousands" of supporters.[31][32] TheFinancial Times quoted their reporter Sebastian Payne as stating that the crowd size was "a couple of thousand".[33] Speakers includedBrexit Party chairman,Richard Tice, businessmanJohn Longworth, broadcasterJulia Hartley-Brewer,Spiked editorBrendan O'Neill,Labour MPKate Hoey,Wetherspoons founderTim Martin, writerClaire Fox,Conservative MPsPeter Bone andMark Francois andDUP MPIan Paisley Jr.[34]
A separate pro-Brexit "Make Brexit Happen" rally, organised by theUKIP party formerly led by Farage, was also held nearby.[35]
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