Open Britain

Open Britain is a British pro-European Union campaign group set up in the aftermath of the 2016 European Union referendum.^[6]

Open Britain

Predecessor	Britain Stronger in Europe
Headquarters	Millbank Tower, 21–24 Millbank, London, England, SW1P 4QP
Owner	PV Campaign Ltd (aka: Baybridge 2019 Limited) (75%)[1]
Executive Director	James McGrory (until October 2019)[2][3][4] Roland Rudd (November 2019–)[5]
Chairperson	Roland Rudd[2]
Directors	Joseph Carberry (?–2019) Trevor Phillips (?–2019) Richard Reed Lord Peter Mandelson (?–2019) Roland Rudd June Sarpong (?–2019) William Straw (?–2019) Daniel Gieve (?–2019) Sir Michael Rake (?–2019)[3]
Affiliations	People's Vote
Website	www.open-britain.co.uk

Background

Following the referendum, the official remain group in the 2016 EU referendum, Britain Stronger in Europe, changed its name on 25 August 2016 to Open Britain.^[7]

Open Britain defines itself as campaigning for the United Kingdom to be open and inclusive, open for business, open to trade and investment, open to talent and hard work, open to Europe and to the world.^[8] It originally campaigned for Britain to remain in the Single Market as part of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.^[9]

In October 2016, Open Britain launched a 'Write to Remain' letter-writing campaign directed at Theresa May asking her to guarantee the right of EU nationals to stay in the UK.^[10]

The individuals involved in the campaign group include former Ministers Pat McFadden (Labour) and Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat).^[11] Conservatives Anna Soubry, Nicky Morgan, and Dominic Grieve cut their ties with Open Britain in April 2017 after it began to campaign against the re-election of anti-EU members of parliament, mostly Conservatives.^[12]

Open Britain continues to campaign in collaboration with other major pro-European campaign groups such as Britain for Europe and European Movement UK. It launched and promotes People's Vote in April 2018 to campaign for a second referendum.^[13][14]

In October 2019, shortly before the 2019 general election, CEO James McGrory was forced out^[2] of People's Vote and Open Britain. Almost all the directors resigned. As the lead organisation behind the People's Vote campaign, this led to a major staff walkout in protest at Roland Rudd's, the Chairperson's, actions.

Stop the Rot

In 2022 Open Britain began a campaign called 'Stop The Rot' promising "Enough is Enough - Johnson Must Go Join the #StopTheRot Summer of Action".^{[15][better source needed]}. The campaign to remove Boris Johnson was backed by 'Fairvote UK' and 'Let's Take Back Control Ltd' run by campaigner Kyle Gregory Taylor, a former candidate for the Advance Together party in the 2019 general election.^[16]

Further reading

• McGrory, James (14 June 2018). "No one voted for a bad deal on Brexit - People's Vote gives us a chance to do something about it". HuffPost.