A pro-EU campaigner who collects the stories of former Leave voters has revealed the most common reasons people give him for having changed their minds on Brexit.
Jamie Woodhouse is a volunteer with RemainerNow, the campaign that amplifies the voices of people who now support Remain despite voting Leave in 2016.
The campaign, which started out with a @RemainerNow Twitter account, says they have been in contact with hundreds of people, and 47-year-old former management consultant Jamie volunteers to talk to them, verify their stories and welcome them into the fold.
The North London-based volunteer said he got involved with the campaign because of how compelling the stories are. “Their voices come through much more than with a boring Remainer like me,” he said.
“We’re not really claiming statistical significance to this,” he added, saying there are plenty of polls that shows the weight of Remain sentiment. “We’re there to provide personal stories.”
Why are people changing their minds on #Brexit?
— Jamie Woodhouse (@JamieWoodhouse) October 15, 2019
A thread - collated from hundreds of #RemainerNow conversations from all over the UK .
It's OK to change your mind. It's not just you! More are speaking out every day @RemainerNow.
Full list here: https://t.co/6T4M2zZvZD
He added: “It breaks apart a lot of stereotypes people have about Leavers.”
He said the campaign gets a lot of pushback from Leavers, who often question how real the #RemainerNow people are – but the team vets each person carefully, he said.
The team checks the person’s social media history, and also get to know them personally.
Jamie’s job on the team is to reach out and have a conversation – “partly just to check the story stands up, but more importantly just to provide some moral support to them”, he said. “It takes real bravery.”
MORE: Former Brexiteer goes through his old tweets and corrects himself in genius thread
In a Twitter thread and blog post, Jamie has pulled together the most common reasons people changed their mind on Brexit.
The reasons people have for changing their minds are broad and varied, and show that many 2016 Leave voters share many of the same concerns as people who were always Remainers. They are:
– Protest votes – against Cameron, austerity, and the establishment
– Concern over how Brexit is causing neglect of domestic issues
– People who – often wanting a softer Brexit – note that Vote Leave promises have been broken
– Dislike of the values, actions and broken promises of Leave politicians and leaders
– Learning more about the EU and its value
– “Project Fear” turning out to be a possible reality, especially after the Yellowhammer report
– Realising Brexit won’t help the UK regions as much as we thought
You can read the full post hereWhile some people stick to using #RemainerNow on Twitter, the hashtag has led to serious campaigning from some participants, who speak at rallies and talk to MPs and Leave voters.
A delegation of 15 #RemainerNow activists have headed to Brussels to talk to MEPs at the European Parliament this week – and, of course, they will be marching at the People’s Vote rally on Saturday.
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