Leavers and Remainers Told Us How They Feel About May's Failed Deal

Brexit, famously, is an absolute mess. Nowhere was this more evident than in and around the Parliamentary estate last night, after the historic Commons defeat of Theresa May's proposed Brexit deal.

A speaker on a lorry converted into a stage called out boldly: "What do we want?" Confused shouts of "Second vote", "A people's vote" and, "No Brexit!" rained back down on her. Leaning against the base of the Churchill statue, a man waving a Union Jack slurred his way through various pro-Brexit slogans. A group of pro-Leave and pro-Remain faced off like school kids, shouting "loser" at one another, while a van circled the square, a four-headed figure sat on its back emblazoned with the "Brexit is a monstrosity".

Now we're in the next stage of purgatory, moved on only slightly from the last stage of purgatory, I asked people on both sides how they're feeling about the whole thing.

VICE: Why are you here tonight?
Mike: I'm here to demonstrate for my democratic views. The politicians and the political elite are not listening to the people – we had a fair vote in 2016 and it's being ignored.

How are you feeling about the vote on the deal being lost just now?
It's as I thought it would be. To be honest, the politicians are just not listening. If Brexit is not delivered – proper Brexit, not her nonsense – there will be civil unrest in this country.

By you?
I'm not advocating it, but I’m hearing it on the street, on Facebook, in groups

Which groups?
Large groups of people who are very frustrated and angry.

What about all the people who are angry about the result and say it was stolen from them?
They had their chance to be heard and vote in 2016. This is the time for people to do the business and take us out of the EU.

Should there be an election to make sure it’ll happen?
No – the Tories have a period of time to do their business, and we should let them do that.

But if they can’t get a deal?
We have a deal – it's called WTO.

So we should just crack on?
Yes! Crack on and get it done. I told that to Anna Soubry earlier. I saw her here and she made a beeline for me. I shook her hand and said, "Anna, it's very bad that you have been harassed by hooligans, but let's crack on and get Brexit sorted so we can start getting back to normality and start becoming prosperous."

Why are you here tonight?
Nicki: I’m here because I support the People's Vote. I believe the 2016 referendum has been proven to have been built on lies, cheating, data abuse, foreign interference, all sorts of things. Brexit ruined my business – I had a really good business that I ran for 20 years, importing materials and exporting British-made products, and the drop in the pound has crucified it.

What do you want to happen now the deal has been voted down?
My personal preference would be that the whole of Parliament comes together to revoke Article 50, because currently they’re abdicating their responsibilities to the people of this country.

If they revoked Article 50 would they be abdicating their responsibilities to the majority of people who voted to leave?
I guess the only other alternative, of course, is to put it back to the people and see how the people feel now that they’ve seen the consequences of what is likely to happen.

How do you feel about the No Confidence motion?
I think Corbyn has to do that, but I don’t think he'll win. They’re just in deadlock, so I think they need to put it back to the people.

So a second referendum over a general election?
I don’t think a general election would sort this. It needs to be a case of offering the deal negotiated or revoking Article 50 and staying where we are, and then looking at what on Earth has gone wrong in this country to get us to this place.

Why are you here today?
Tim: I'm here to support the democratic mandate for Brexit – we had a referendum on it and won, and I would like to see it delivered fully.

Is it not being delivered fully?
No. In the 2017 election, the Tories made it clear that no deal was better than a bad deal – both sides seem to regard this deal as a bad deal, so I think there is a mandate for no deal, and that’s what I’d like to see delivered.

What about the people who say Brexit wasn’t spelt out in the referendum campaigns or the election?
I disagree, the campaign was very spelled out from both sides.

Like £350 million was spelled out on the side of a bus?
Yeah, the £350 million was simply stating a fact that this is what we were paying to the EU, and there were suggestions of what else could be done with that money. We haven’t had Brexit yet, so we don’t know whether that could happen or not.

How do you feel about the vote being lost?
I’m happy, and I think most Remainers are too.

What do you want to happen now?
I would like to see us leave the EU as I voted for, which was to cut political and economic limitations of the EU over Britain.

And what do you think about Jeremy Corbyn’s motion of No Confidence?
I think it's time we had a general election

Cool – can we take your picture?
I’d rather not

Why, are you embarrassed to be seen here?
No.

What brought you down here?
Granny Remain: The vote – we've come down with Stand of Defiance European Movement, otherwise known as SODEM.

Great. And how did you feel when you heard the vote had been lost?
Relieved, but the fight is far from over. We have now got to go through a whole campaign to get a people’s vote.

What about Corbyn’s motion of no confidence?
Obviously if it gets the Tory government out then that’s no bad thing, because the whole Tory party is all about itself – they are not about the people of this country.

So you’re looking forward to a general election?
Yeah. But the Labour party have to back a people’s vote, otherwise they will lose a huge amount of votes. The referendum vote before was too close to call and leave cheated, so it should have been a null and void vote.

Isn’t Labour having to straddle lots of leave and remain voters though?
The Labour party have to put their money where their mouth is and make a decision one way or the other. The majority of members are backing a people’s vote. Jeremy Corbyn has to listen to his members.

And what happens if, as the polls are suggesting, it’d be exactly the same result as before?
If it was run honestly, then fair enough. You can’t argue with democracy.

@bencsmoke / @Jake_Photo