February 27, 2017 3.52 pm This story is over 85 months old

New Lincolnshire movement to campaign for Britain to remain in EU

A new movement has been set up in Lincolnshire campaigning for Britain to remain a member of the European Union. The Lincolnshire branch of the European Movement was established on February 14 in Spalding, and the organisation boasts over 50 members in the county within its first two weeks. Lincolnshire voted decisively to leave the…

A new movement has been set up in Lincolnshire campaigning for Britain to remain a member of the European Union.

The Lincolnshire branch of the European Movement was established on February 14 in Spalding, and the organisation boasts over 50 members in the county within its first two weeks.

Lincolnshire voted decisively to leave the EU in the referendum held last June, but chair of European Movement East Midlands George Smid said that the organisation was there to provide a voice for the tens of thousands of Remain voters in the county.

He told Lincolnshire Reporter: “Yes, I do respect the result of the referendum. The result is a fact.

“The reason why European Movement is campaigning to remain in the EU is simple: Theresa May wants ‘the best for Britain’. We want ‘Better than the best’.

“And the yardstick against which we are going to evaluate ‘the best’ is not what the ministers can negotiate.

“The measurement must be against what we already have.”

Smid, who is a member of the Liberal Democrats, also described Prime Minister Theresa May’s approach to leaving the EU as “Blindxit not Brexit”.

He added: “Just look at all the adjectives coming out from the ministers describing Brexit: soft Brexit, hard Brexit, over-the-cliff Brexit, full Brexit, crash Brexit, red-white-and-blue Brexit. Take the last one as a statement of strategy or future trajectory. What does it mean?”

“With the recent fall in the pound and oil price increase you and I (and everybody else, including all the Leavers and all the Remainers) pay approximately 10p per litre more for our petrol and diesel then we needed to.

“So far it has not been Brexit. It has been Blindxit. European Movement aims to change that.”