Remainer says pro-European event would ‘outnumber’ those at Nigel Farage’s Brexit celebration

In a ‘throwaway remark’ Jonathan Lis managed to anger Brexiteers and the Daily Express by suggesting a counter-demonstration would attract more Remainers than Nigel Farage will attract Brexiteers on January 31st.

Farage, who is planning to charge people to attend an event in Parliament Square in Westminster, is said to have 12,000 people interested in his party.

But Lis said he expected that more people would come out on to the streets to mark the Remain movement than celebrate Brexit on the day.

He told talkRADIO: “We’re going to have a counter-demo to match it and we’re going to have bigger numbers.”

MORE: Remainers reveal what they will be doing at 11pm on 31st January

The remarks angered Brexiteers as well as pro-Leave newspaper the Express, fuming that Remainers were going to “spoil” the day for those who want to celebrate the UK’s departure from the EU.

Lis later clarified that he had made a “throwaway remark” – but was now looking for ideas for how to organise a demonstration in the next 18 days.

He tweeted: “So the good news is that a throwaway remark I made on the radio yesterday has generated a rage-splash in the Daily Express.

“The amazing news is that I now have to organise a major national demonstration in the next 18 days.”