Sutton for Europe (S4E) (formerly known as Open Britain Sutton, Epsom & Ewell) evolved out of the EU Referendum "Stronger In" local network and has been campaigning and lobbying locally since late 2016 as part of the national campaign against a "no deal" hard destructive Brexit. The national Open Britain campaign was also part of the wider People's Vote campaign. We are proud to have helped organise local people to take part in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th largest demonstrations in UK history as well as encouraging local people to sign the two largest UK parliamentary petitions.

We now act as a local group promoting a better and stronger relationship with the EU and connecting with the activities of the wide range of the ongoing pro-EU National Campaigns. It is also clear that the EU is inevitably distrustful of UK Government's intentions after it makes deals and then reneges on them, so we also support broader democracy and rule of law campaigns that seek to create honesty, accountability and stability in UK politics that would build trust so the EU would actually feel confident negotiating a better relationship with the UK in future.

Whilst historically focused on Sutton, we do have Epsom & Ewell Supporters but recognise they are also catered for by North East Surrey for Europe who we are very happy to collaborate on campaigning with in that area.

National Rejoin March V

Details of this will be announced here in future and more will be on our Events page too.

On Thursday 4th July people voted for change of government and new Local MPs. Many people on our 200+ mailing list worked out their own ways of maximising their involvement or impact on the General Election, either locally or in a wider context, in order to increase the chances that the country could move in a more pro-Europe direction. This has been a massive success as we clearly have seen a big change..

It is clear people gave a strong verdict on the previous government and the current post-Brexit situation of the UK. As a result of this there is now an opportunity to set out on a path to rebuild our damaged relations with the EU.  Below is a video of a speech from Mike Galsworthy of the European Movement setting out some of the issues and challenges that will face the new Government.

The National Results of the election are available here. There is now a Minister for the Constitution and EU Relations who can be contacted here. Best for Britain are encouraging people to write to their own MP here. Here are the Manifesto's of the Labour Government and Opposition Liberal Democrats and Green Party setting out what sort of changes they would like to see on EU relations in the coming five years. We also provide links to various research reports suggesting how things can be now taken forward on our events page here which may provide you with useful material for any emails you might wish to send to national or local politicians.

Local Results and MP contact information is set out on the non-partisan "Who Can I Vote For" website here:

• Sutton & Cheam: https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/parl.sutton-and-cheam.2024-07-04/sutton-and-cheam/ 

• Carshalton & Wallington: https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/parl.carshalton-and-wallington.2024-07-04/carshalton-and-wallington/ 

• Epsom and Ewell: https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/parl.epsom-and-ewell.2024-07-04/epsom-and-ewell/ 

Continuing the Public Debate

We recognise the better relationship with the EU in the coming years will be more of an ongoing process, rather than a single event. Thus our local role continues to promote the benefits of UK co-operation with the EU and we will report over how this unfolds and how people locally can express their view to both national and local politicians.

In the meantime, the one thing all of us can easily do all together is use our conversations with others we meet and our activity on social media to keep asking "where were the Brexit Benefits?". We have learned from the Leave campaign, which spent years casting doubt over Britain's membership of the EU that we are in an ongoing to process to promote closer relations and demonstrate to the newly elected politicians that the process can speed up over the coming years.

One of the biggest changes in the last few years is the number of Leave voters, perhaps suffering "buyer's remorse" who are directly changing their minds and becoming less supportive of Brexit. As John Curtice says:

However, whereas a year ago Remain and Leave voters were more or less equally likely to stick with the choice they made in 2016, now Remain voters are thirteen points more likely to say they would vote to re-join the EU than Leave voters are to indicate that they would vote to stay out. The level of loyalty among Remain voters to the EU has increased, whereas the commitment of Leave voters to being outside the EU has faded. 

Source: https://www.whatukthinks.org/eu/2023/06/23/seven-years-on-why-has-brexit-become-less-popular/ More up to the minute polling data can be found here: https://www.whatukthinks.org/eu/ and also here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_re-accession_of_the_United_Kingdom_to_the_European_Union#Opinion_polling

Therefore your efforts taking those people on a journey away from Leave does help change the political dynamic. 

Our social media below, our emails and this website will aim to give you ammunition to help make your points to encourage that "direct switch of support" to continue further. As a result an early action you might want to do is to let us know anyone else who would like to be added to our mailing list

The Vote as a Tool for Change

The election reminded us that the vote is a precious tool for change so we will continue to encourage eligible EU citizens over here (such as those with an Irish passport eligible to vote) to exercise their local democratic rights:

• More details on EU voter eligibility here: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/running-electoral-registration-wales/eligibility-register-vote/what-are-nationality-requirements-register-vote/can-a-citizen-european-union-register-vote

We will also continue to remind voters in general, but especially younger voters and those who might face barriers such as the disabled about the various ways they can ensure they get a vote and below are all the key links:

• People can be registered to vote here: https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

• They can obtain a postal vote here: https://www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote

• They can obtain a proxy vote here: https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/voting-by-proxy 

• And they can apply for a Voter ID form if they do not already have one here: https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate

A quick summary of the outcome of the elections and the impact of the three votes each person had:

• In the London Mayoral Election Parties with a former People's Vote view polled 55.4% of the vote and Pro-EU Sadiq Khan was re-elected as Mayor of London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_London_mayoral_election

• In the London Assembly Elections people has two votes for constituencies and a London List and as a result Parties with a former People's Vote view polled respectively in each vote 63.6% and 61.2% and in total elected 16 of the 25 London Assembly members https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_London_Assembly_election

With these results London clearly stays strongly anti-Brexit and pro-EU. July 2024 polling also showed that excluding non voters and undecided London itself would vote 69%-31% to Rejoin the EU which is a 9% swing away from Leave since 2016.

There was a local event in Epsom - see photo below. A full round up of events with video and a podcast report can be accessed here.