We stand on the brink of a historic, national collapse – it’s time to take to the streets to stop Brexit

The Put It To The People march on 23 March will make the case for more democracy impossible to ignore

Every generation likes to see themselves as though they are on the precipice of history.

We like to feel that our actions could have a profound impact on our children, our children’s children and their descendents too. In the urgency of the present, we can easily exaggerate the influence our choices will have on determining the future.

In Britain in 2019, however, we must be in no doubt that this is truly a rare moment of historic importance.

Brexit is a crisis on a scale that far surpasses our last major international embarrassment, in Suez in 1956. Economically, politically, culturally, diplomatically and in terms of security, leaving the European Union is an unprecedented disaster that will send the United Kingdom on an inescapable downwards trajectory.

We can still avert this crisis, but politicians are failing to show the courage required. A clear majority of my colleagues in parliament know that Brexit will hurt their constituents, but they still believe it serves their own narrow self-interests to allow it. MPs are putting political expediency above the national interest. They are too afraid to tell the truth. As these politicians will not listen to reasoned argument, only electoral threat, the time has come for the public to show them that they will not be forgiven for this failure.

As Nelson Mandela once said, “the real makers of history are the ordinary men and women of our country”. For change it is necessary for the masses to organise, protest and take a stand.

On Saturday 23 March, just six days before this historic mistake, we have a chance to do just this. Gathering in our hundreds of thousands at high noon on Park Lane, we will march to Westminster to demand a solution to a crisis that threatens our living standards, jobs and even our rights.

As we march, we will be in the company of all those crowds throughout our history who have stood up to demand what is right through peaceful protest. The 500,000 brave men and women who rallied in Hyde Park in 1908 to demand a woman’s right to vote. The 400,000 who marched in October 1983 to demand an end to nuclear weapons. And the hundreds of thousands who called for an end to cuts in 2011.

Just like them we will have to face the reality that we may not be successful, but we will be secure in the knowledge that we stood up for what was right.

Some may be concerned that a week before Brexit is too late, but it is the volume of our voice and the power of our actions that will determine our success. Whatever parliament decides over the coming weeks, and whatever amendments have already been passed, it is in those final days that we have the biggest chance to convince MPs to give this decision back to the public.

The Put It To The People march will make the case for more democracy impossible to ignore.

We will demand that any Brexit deal be put to the people for approval. We will reject the choice between no deal and May’s deal that the prime minister is offering to MPs, because it is a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. We will not accept the choice between several forms of Brexit, all of which the government’s own assessments say will make us significantly poorer. We will not buy the lie that democracy was frozen on 23 June 2016.

Instead, it is time for us to get out on the streets and rally to protect our jobs, to keep businesses open, to secure funding for schools and hospitals, and to resist more reasons for another decade of gruelling austerity.

We will stand up for an international vision of the United Kingdom. A future in which our leaders sit at the top of the European table and have special strength as a bridge between this continent and the United States. One where our security services work closely with our allies in Europe to keep us safe from global threats. A country where our children have the chance to study, live and work freely across Europe, not a future where their horizons are narrowed and their wings are clipped.

Anyone who cares about this country, anyone who feels conned by the false promises made in the last referendum, anyone who wants to get closure from this draining debate should be prepared to be heard with their feet.

We stand on the brink of a historic, national collapse. Join us on 23 March to help pull the country back from the brink.

David Lammy is Labour MP for Tottenham

For more details about the Put It To The People march – and to sign up – please visit https://www.peoples-vote.uk/march

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