Jeremy Corbyn has become the latest target of a widespread Brexit billboard campaign, with activists urging the Labour leader to back a second referendum.
The youth and student-led wing of the People’s Vote campaign, For our Future’s Sake (FFS), and Led by Donkeys, an anti-Brexit guerrilla campaigning group, have commandeered a (currently blank) billboard in Corbyn’s Islington constituency.
They are asking voters to use the space to set out why they back a second referendum and it is hoped the result will be a massive piece of community art urging Corbyn to support a so-called People’s Vote.
FFS Supporter and 18-year-old Labour member Kira Lewis, said: “Jeremy was rightly elected off of the back of the support of young people across the country, who believed in his vision of a new type of politics. We very nearly propelled him to Downing Street last year, believing that he would genuinely listen to our concerns.
“However, the reality is that because of Brexit, young people are gravely concerned. There simply is no Brexit that doesn’t limit the life opportunities of the young – and this billboard shows Mr Corbyn that young people’s support is not unconditional. We believed in him because we believed he would offer us a brighter future. That isn’t possible outside of the European Union.”
The billboard will take the form of an unwritten tweet by the leader of the Labour Party, with #Brexit along the bottom, giving young supporters and constituents the opportunity to draft whatever they hope he will say on Brexit in the coming days.
Last month, David Cameron became the first target of the Led by Donkeys campaign, after a tweet he wrote was plastered on a billboard in north east London.
The giant display featured a message from the then-prime minster, posted in 2015, which said the UK faced “stability and strong government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband”.
Michael Gove, Dominic Raab, Jacob Rees-Mogg and the PM herself were subsequently given similar treatment.
The latest stunt comes after Corbyn urged Theresa May to accept a series of demands set out by Labour in return for support for her Brexit deal – claiming the option of a public vote remains on the table.
Corbyn had faced a backlash from pro-EU Labour MPs after setting out his conditions for accepting a Brexit deal in a letter to the prime minister.
But he said the party’s policy remained as set out following the party’s 2018 conference – to call for a general election if May cannot get a deal through parliament and then to keep all options open.
In a speech in Coventry, Corbyn accused May of an “utterly cynical” and “reckless” attempt to run down the clock before the UK’s exit from the UK on 29 March.
Polling shows 78% of Labour members back a People’s Vote and three quarters of young people back a People’s Vote. FFS recently released research which showed a massive 27% drop in support in the last six months over Corbyn’s handling of Brexit.
FFS Supporter and Islington North Labour Member, Bashir Ibrahim, said: “I want Jeremy Corbyn to be prime minister, and for there to be a Labour government. But the reality is that we can’t get a Labour government – and nor can it deliver the radical change this country needs – without a People’s Vote.
“This billboard is a fun way of reminding the leadership of my party that the overwhelming majority of young people, and Labour supporters back a People’s Vote – and we need our voices heard.”