A PROMINENT pro-EU activist has vowed to take to the streets in the name of ‘the great ignored’.

Reverend Susie Courtault, who chairs non-partisan pressure group Brighton and Hove for Europe, said public opinion in the city is turning against a hard Brexit.

She said: “We mean business and we are not going away.

“The mood music in Brighton is rapidly changing and our efforts are starting to bear fruit.”

Rev Courtault said the exit deal currently on the table is already driving away EU citizens who have made a valuable contribution to the local economy.

She said: “We have had people come up to our stalls with families of mixed nationalities and say they are distraught.

“One woman I know has a German husband and they have moved abroad because he doesn’t want to live here any more.

“We are convinced Brexit is bad news for Brighton both economically and on a human level.”

Protest groups from across the city will meet next week to hammer out plans for a co-ordinated march against Theresa May’s Brexit strategy.

A flash mob singing Ode To Joy, the European anthem, is also being planned to coincide with the British heats for the Eurovision song contest in February.

The show is to be broadcast from the Brighton Dome, the scene of Abba’s career-defining success in 1974.

Rev Courtault said the public sector was already suffering a brain drain.

She said: “If you go into the Royal Sussex County Hospital they have a lot of EU nationals working there but they’re short on staff.

“It’s all very well saying we want to get immigration down but it has to be the right kind of immigration.”

Rev Courtault called Vote Leave’s notorious claim the NHS would receive an additional £350 million a week after Brexit “magical thinking”.

She said: “There’s a very real threat to the institutions we hold dear.

Rev Courtault said her pressure group, half of whose members hail from EU member states, want a second referendum on any Brexit deal.

She said: “We’re fed up with hearing the people have spoken.

“If you add the three million EU nationals to the 16 million who voted remain, that’s 19 million people.

“In a democracy, you have the right to change your mind.”

Labour-led Brighton and Hove City Council recently voted by a narrow margin to remain part of the Eurocity network.

This is a 184-strong forum of European cities dedicated to influencing EU chiefs in fields ranging from job creation to air quality.

All three of the city’s MPs are vocal opponents of Brexit.