LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people opposed to Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union marched through central London on Saturday to demand a new referendum as the deepening Brexit crisis risked sinking Prime Minister Theresa May’s premiership. After three years of tortuous debate, it is still uncertain how, when or even if Brexit will happen as May tries to plot a way out of the gravest political crisis in at least a generation. Marchers set off in central London with banners proclaiming “the best deal is no Brexit” and “we demand a People’s Vote” in what organisers said was more than one million people strong and the biggest anti-Brexit protest yet. “I would feel differently if this was a well-managed process and the government was taking sensible decisions. But it is complete chaos,” Gareth Rae, 59, who travelled from Bristol to attend the demonstration, told Reuters. “The country will be divided whatever happens and it is worse to be divided on a lie.” While the country and its politicians are divided over Brexit, most agree it is the most important strategic decision the United Kingdom has faced since World War Two. Thousands of pro-EU protesters gathered for the “Put it to the people march” at Marble Arch on the edge of Hyde Park around midday, before marching through the landmarks Picadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square and past the prime minister’s office in Downing Street to finish outside parliament. March organisers estimated that more than one million people turned out for the march, exceeding a similar rally held in October, when supporters said about 700,000 people turned up. It was not possible to independently verify the figure, although a Reuters reporter said the march was so busy that some of the crowd had to be diverted off the main route. Police declined to give an estimate on the number of protesters. The one million estimate would make it London’s second biggest demonstration after a rally against the Iraq War in February 2003, which organisers said close to 2 million people attended. “NEVER GONNA GIVE EU UP” A range of politicians, including from the governing Conservative Party, addressed a crowd, which packed out Parliament Square and left some unable to get near. Among them was Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson, who swung behind a People’s Vote on May’s deal despite party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s reticence on the issue, and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon. Slideshow ( 23 images ) Phoebe Poole, 18, who was holding a placard saying “never gonna give EU up” in reference to a song by 1980s popstar Rick Astley, was not old enough to vote in the 2016 referendum. “We have come here today because we feel like our future has been stolen from us. It is our generation that is going to have to live with the consequences of this disaster,” she told Reuters. “It is going to make it harder to get a job. You are already seeing a lot of large companies leaving. I am worried about the future.” Slideshow ( 23 images ) Two hundred coaches from around Britain were booked to take people to London for the march. A petition to cancel Brexit altogether gained 4.39 million signatures in just three days after May told the public “I am on your side” over Brexit and urged lawmakers to get behind her deal. But protesters disagreed with May’s claim that she is on the side of the British public, with one placard reading: “You do not speak for us Theresa.” In the June 23, 2016 referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 52 percent, backed Brexit while 16.1 million, or 48 percent, backed staying in the bloc. But ever since, opponents of Brexit have been exploring ways to hold another referendum. Some opinion polls have shown a slight shift in favour of remaining in the European Union, but there has yet to be sustained evidence of a decisive change in attitudes. May has repeatedly ruled out holding another Brexit referendum, saying it would deepen divisions and undermine support for democracy. Brexit supporters say a second referendum would trigger a major constitutional crisis. Those favouring Britain remaining in the EU say Brexit will bring economic hardship and disrupt trade, as well as an end to many social benefits, including the right to live and work in 27 other countries. Supporters of Brexit say the divorce might bring some short-term instability, but in the longer term Britain will thrive if cut free from what they cast as a doomed experiment in German-dominated unity that is falling far behind other major powers. “We already put it to the people. And the people roared,” pro-leave group Change Britain said in a tweet.<doc-sep>LONDON — Anti-Brexit protesters flooded into central London by the hundreds of thousands on Saturday, demanding that Britain's Conservative-led government hold a new referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union. The "People's Vote March" snaked from Park Lane and other locations to converge on the U.K. Parliament, where the fate of Brexit will be decided in the coming weeks. Marchers carried European Union flags and signs praising the longstanding ties between Britain and continental Europe. The protest drew people from across Britain who are determined to force Prime Minister Theresa May's government to alter its march toward Brexit. EU supporters, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal, participate in the "People's Vote" march in central London on Saturday. Henry Nicholls / Reuters Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, invited to help lead the march, called the crowd impressive and unified. "There is a huge turnout of people here from all walks of life, of all ages and from all over the country," he tweeted. "We are a Remain country now with 60 percent wanting to stop the Brexit mess." Police did not provide a crowd estimate. Independent legislator Chuka Umunna and others supporting a second Brexit referendum estimated the crowd at 1 million. More than 4 million people endorsed an electronic petition this week in favor of revoking Article 50, the act that formally triggered the Brexit process. The march comes as May, who opposes a second referendum on Britain's EU membership, is easing away from plans to hold a third vote on her troubled Brexit withdrawal plan, which has been strongly rejected twice by Parliament. In a letter to lawmakers on Friday night, May said she might not seek passage of her Brexit withdrawal plan in Parliament next week. The embattled leader said she would only bring her EU divorce plan back to Parliament if there seems to be enough backing for it to pass. "If it appears that there is not sufficient support to bring the deal back next week, or the House rejects it again, we can ask for another extension before 12 April, but that will involve holding European Parliament elections," she said. May's changing stance reflects the plan's dismal chances in the House of Commons after two prior defeats. She also says she would need the approval of House Speaker John Bercow to bring the plan back for a third time. Bercow has said a third vote would violate parliamentary rules against repeatedly voting on the same thing unless May's Brexit divorce plan is altered. Almost three years after Britons voted to walk away from the EU, the bloc's leaders this week seized control of the Brexit timetable from May to avert a chaotic departure on March 29 that would be disruptive for the world's biggest trading bloc and deeply damaging for Britain. EU leaders at a summit in Brussels set two deadlines for Britain to leave the bloc of nearly half a billion people or to take an entirely new path in considering its EU future. They agreed to extend the Brexit date until May 22, on the eve of the EU Parliament elections, if May can persuade the British Parliament to endorse her Brexit divorce deal. Failing that, they gave May until April 12 to choose between leaving the bloc without a divorce deal or deciding on a radically new path, such as revoking Britain's decision to leave, holding a new referendum on Brexit or finding a cross-party consensus for a very different kind of Brexit. Despite May's letter to lawmakers, it was not clear what path her minority government would take this week. The anti-Brexit marchers on Saturday included 63-year-old Edmund Sides, who spent the last three weeks walking from Wales to London in order to take part. Sides, a geologist, said he wanted to be able to speak to people along the way, encouraging families that have been split between Leave and Remain to mend their fences and talk. "The whole country isn't doing enough of that," he said. He is worried about the vicious tone that Brexit arguments have started to take and worries about national cohesion. "People fear the atmosphere is very dangerous in this country," Sides said.<doc-sep>Former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine gave an impassioned speech Saturday. Former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine criticized Theresa May in a speech in Parliament Square. “The Prime Minister herself bears a heavy personal responsibility for our current crisis,” he said, adding that her criticism of MPs last Wednesday was an "affront to parliamentary democracy." Generals who lose wars blame their troops, managers who break their companies blame the workers, said Heseltine. "Now we can add: Prime ministers who lose elections blame their MPs," he said, before calling for a second referendum. "One way or another, you the people must decide. You the people must be free to vote to remain."<doc-sep>
More than a million people have marched through London to demand a second EU referendum, organisers have said. Demonstrators flooded the streets of the capital to call for a final say over Brexit as a host of politicians addressed a packed rally outside parliament. The People's Vote campaign, which organised the march, said the event had "broken the one million people mark" and hailed it as "one of the biggest protests in British history". Image: Hundreds of thousands of anti-Brexit campaigners marched in London Image: Campaigners called for a people's vote Among the speakers in Parliament Square was Labour's deputy leader, Tom Watson, who accused Theresa May of "plunging the country into chaos" and urged her to "let the people take control". The prime minister has written to MPs to warn she could seek an extension to Britain's EU membership beyond the European Parliament elections at the end of May if there is insufficient support for her withdrawal agreement in the coming days. Image: Tom Watson accused Theresa May of 'plunging the country into chaos' "The way to break the stalemate is for parliament and the people to come together, to decide on our future together," Mr Watson said. "Prime minister, you have lost control. You're plunging this country into chaos. Let the people take control." Other speakers at the rally included Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Tory peer Lord Heseltine, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and MPs from the newly formed Independent Group. Some of those watching the speakers chanted "Where's Jeremy Corbyn?" after the Labour leader missed the event as he spent the day campaigning in Morecambe, Lancashire. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 'Nobody voted to be poorer' Image: Thousands of anti-Brexit campaigners gathered in Parliament Square The London march began at Hyde Park Corner before passing Trafalgar Square and Whitehall and ending in Parliament Square, where the area filled up before some marchers had even set off. Many of the protesters flew large EU flags and carried placards with messages urging the government to "revoke article 50" and calling for Brexit to be put to the people. Image: The march passed London landmarks including Whitehall and Trafalgar Square If organisers are correct, the size of the march would surpass the estimated 700,000 people who attended a demonstration in London last October to call for a people's vote. The latest London march coincided with former UKIP leader Nigel Farage re-joining the pro-Brexit March to Leave as it set off from Linby, near Nottingham, on Saturday. Mr Farage confirmed the Brexit campaigners are due to arrive in London on 29 March - the day the UK was originally due to leave the EU - telling Sky News they are unhappy because they are "on the verge of being betrayed". Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 'No more Mr Nice Guy': Farage fumes over EU "We'll be there in Parliament Square on that day to say: 'If you think you can walk all over us, you've got another thing coming,'" he added. The People's Vote march came on the same day the number of signatures added to an online petition calling for Article 50 to be revoked, and the UK to remain in the EU, surpassed four million. Margaret Georgiadou, 77, who set up the petition, later revealed she has received death threats and her Facebook account has been hacked.