Thousands rally in London for new Brexit vote

(London) – Tens of thousands of people opposed to Britain´s looming breakup with the EU rallied in the heart of London, according to organisers, in the latest bid to try and stop Brexit.

The march on parliament began as a noisy and festive affair, uniting a giant crowd in the seemingly hopeless task of convincing Prime Minister Theresa May to hold a second referendum.

Organisers of the so-called People´s Vote March had asked people to dress up their favourite pets in costumes for the march along the scenic route from Hyde Park to Westminster Palace under clear blue skies.

But the message itself is serious: the type of Brexit its supporters promised ahead of the June 2016 referendum, which set the divorce in motion, looks nothing like the one being negotiated today.

Protesters say they would have voted differently had they known the true costs involved.

“I think people were misled in various ways,” small business owner Peter Hancock told AFP while tightening an EU flag around the neck of his huge bearded collie.

“We want to stay European,” added his wheelchair-bound wife Julie.

“We can´t really see any benefits of leaving, can we, at all.”

An online petition demanding a binding vote on any deal agreed before the March deadline has been signed almost 950,000 times by the time the march kicked off.