About

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 4th 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.

If it is of some reassurance to everyone, the current modern UK pro-EU movement is far, far bigger and better organised than the modern Eurosceptic/Brexiteer movement was at the time it really started off in response to the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. Stay European has over 150,000 supporters. This is similar to the European Movement - 21,000 members, some 215,000 supporters, 137 local groups. Open Britain nationally has a mailing list of up to 500,000, whilst locally Sutton 4 Europe (locally covering just 3 out of 650 parliamentary constituencies) have a mailing list of over 200. These local networks are replicated all over the country in hundreds of local groups. This is a very big UK-wide base that can be built on in the coming years, so do sign up to various groups that we list in our emails and encourage friends, relatives and neighbours to also sign up in order to be part of a broad networked pro-EU movement.

Whatever the long-term relationship, there is a lot to do in the near future with campaigns for deals with Europe on areas that clearly are not working in the Brexit deal, such as fishing, agriculture, veterinary standards, border trade arrangements, tourist travel, scientific and medical co-operation, cross-border academic studying and travel concessions for musicians working in the EU etc. Thus big UK-wide networked campaign organisations, along with local groups that we are helping to sustain and grow, help us get our message across in convincing MPs to move further on these issues.

Thank you for all your support to both the local and national campaign over the last seven years. We hope you are well after the two years that were impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic and wish you all good health.

Our local Steering Group hold email and other online & face to face conversations about the current situation and monitors the latest activity by the national campaigns so we can let you know of key actions that help to improve the current bad Brexit Deal or help develop closer relations with the EU in the long-run. These are regularly updated and the current ones are listed on our Events page. We also have social media at the links below and an email mailing list as well.

You can sign up to the email mailing list or contact us direct at: Sutton4Europe@gmail.com