Hundreds of thousands of people marched through London on Saturday to demand the public be given a final say on Brexit.
The protest culminated in jubilant scenes outside parliament after MPs voted to delay a crunch vote on Boris Johnson’s new deal and force him to seek an extension to the Article 50 exit process.
Marchers who had gathered in Parliament Square outside the House of Commons reacted with joy following the mid-afternoon result, when 322-306 members backed a motion tabled by former Tory cabinet minister Oliver Letwin that stalled the momentum behind Mr Johnson’s deal.
Cheers rang out after the result was announced live on a stage outside.
“Delay it all you like, it sounds like a positive move forward,” said Ian Terrell, a Londoner draped in a Union flag with the 12 gold stars of the European flag superimposed.
Eluned Morgan, Labour minister for international relations in the Welsh Assembly, said: “Delay is better than no deal, and supporting this [new] deal directly.”
Organisers of the People’s Vote campaign said they believed as many as 1m people attended, although they said that estimating the size of protests in major cities is notoriously difficult.
“It is impossible to put an exact figure on the size of this immense crowd because it is an open route spilling out across central London,” the group said. “But indications can be taken from flow and fill rates and crowd density monitoring.”
The all-time record for a UK protest was the 2003 demonstration against the Iraq War, which was claimed to be close to 2m.
Jane Fitzgerald, who travelled to the capital from Blackpool to attend the march and was wrapped in an EU flag, said it was the “last chance to make my voice heard”. Asked what her message to Boris Johnson would be, she said: “I’d tell him to do what’s best for the country rather than his career.”
EU flags filled the square where London’s biggest protests are traditionally held. There were numerous placards critical of Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser who was the architect of the Vote Leave campaign.
It was the first Saturday sitting of parliament since the 1982 Falklands conflict.
Speaking after the result of Saturday’s vote was announced, London mayor Sadiq Khan said: “Look around — this is what democracy looks like. Look at the Supreme Court, where fearless judges sit — that’s what democracy looks like. Look at parliament, where we have brave MPs standing up to the executive — that’s what democracy looks like.”
Adding that more than 1m Londoners were EU citizens, he said: “Over the last three years they have been feeling anxious, scared, worried and heartbroken. As mayor my message to them is very simple: you are welcome here.”
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell and Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Keir Starmer also spoke following the event, thanking the crowd for their attendance.
Speaking shortly before the march on Westminster set off, Kavita Baldwin, an academic from Nottingham, expressed concern that MPs had had little time to scrutinise the latest Brexit proposal.
“Our MPs should have longer than [a few] hours debate to look at a 500-page document,” she said, adding that she would prefer to see a second referendum pitting a remain option against the latest deal Brussels has agreed to. “A people’s say on the final deal is the only way to move this forward.”
