UK campaigners gear up for EU vote in shadow of Brexit

With Brexit passions running high, campaigners are hitting Britain’s streets and taking to social media ahead of European elections.

Political parties old and new are gearing up for what has been described as a “zombie” election that was never meant to be held until Britain delayed its scheduled departure from the European Union.

The vote could now become a poll on Brexit -- three years on from a referendum in which 52 percent voted to leave the bloc.

“I see it as a soft referendum,” said Isis Queresma-Cabral, 44, a French citizen in Britain for 19 years and a pro-EU election activist.

“(It’s) an opportunity for us European citizens who felt hurt by the first referendum to voice that,” she said.

Brexiteers are similarly minded, with social worker Richard Harris, 37, joining anti-EU firebrand Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party.