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Femi Oluwole

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Femi Oluwole
Oluwole speaking at Birmingham's Bin-Brexit rally in 2018
Born (1990-03-17) 17 March 1990 (age 34)[1]
Darlington, County Durham, England
EducationYarm School
Alma materUniversity of Nottingham

Femi Oluwole (born 17 March 1990)[1][2] is a British political activist and co-founder of the pro-European Union advocacy group Our Future Our Choice.[3] He has appeared as a commentator and activist on British television. He has written for The Independent, The Guardian and The Metro.

Early life and education

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Oluwole was born in Darlington, County Durham to Nigerian parents – a surgeon father and a paediatrician mother, who both immigrated to the United Kingdom in the 1980s.[4][5][6] He grew up in the West Midlands but as a child lived in several different places across the country, having once attended a school in Dundee.[7][8] He was privately educated at the Yarm School, and went on to study law and the French language at the University of Nottingham, while completing an Erasmus Programme year in France.[9]

Career

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Oluwole has interned in non-governmental organisations and human rights agencies. At the age of 27 he left his traineeship and moved into his parents' loft to become a campaigner against Brexit, telling the Evening Standard that he made the decision to quit 2 months before his traineeship ended because he was "frustrated that the pro-Remain argument was not being made effectively by mainstream politicians."[10] In pursuing this, Oluwole created the social media channel Our Future Our Choice in September 2017, which, with the collaboration of Will Dry and Lara Spirit,[11] who had launched an anti-Brexit student activism movement in universities, was incorporated as a company on 19 February 2018.[2][5][12][13] The group advocated a pro-EU message from a youth standpoint.[12][14] He supported the People's Vote campaign for a further referendum on EU membership.[15]

Oluwole regularly appeared in the media during the process of the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.[16][17] Oluwole has written for The Independent,[18] The Guardian,[19] and the Metro,[20] and has appeared on Talkradio.[21]

In July 2019, Richard Tice, the then chair of the Brexit Party, threatened to sue Oluwole after he alleged that Leave.EU (an organisation Tice co-founded) was "overtly antisemitic".[22] Oluwole refused to apologise.[23][3]

During the 2024 United Kingdom general election, Oluwole was barred from a Reform UK rally in Birmingham. Despite Oluwole showing his press pass, security guards at the venue said they “didn’t know” why he was not allowed to attend the event.[24]

Personal Life

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Oluwole is heterosexual.[25]

References

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  1. ^ a b "It would be pretty difficult for me to. 😅". Twitter. Femi Oluwole. 29 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Femi Oluwole". London: Companies House. 2019. Archived from the original on 10 June 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  3. ^ a b Gee, Harry (5 February 2020). "Femi Oluwole, the political maverick thinking outside Brexit box". France 24. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  4. ^ Machell, Ben (18 August 2018). "Femi Oluwole interview: 'In just three years we will have a population that voted Remain'". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  5. ^ a b Toma, Costanza de (4 January 2019). "Femi Oluwole, the leader of the Europeanist movement that wants to stop Brexit". NuoveRadici.World (in Italian). Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  6. ^ McTeirnan, Anthea (21 June 2016). "Diversity of opinion on Brexit manifest on Birmingham's streets". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  7. ^ "Femi Oluwole at Our Future Our Choice". Our Future Our Choice. Archived from the original on 7 June 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  8. ^ Nand, Lisa Francesca (host); Oluwole, Femi (guest) (9 October 2018). "38. Femi Oluwole; Anti-Brexit Campaigner on Nigel Farage, Chips in Brussels, Wealth v Poverty in Nigeria and a French Summer of Love" (Podcast). The Big Travel Podcast. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  9. ^ Brown, Mike (11 March 2018). "Meet Femi, the campaigner and former Yarm School student who says Brexit is a disaster for the young". TeessideLive. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  10. ^ De Peyer, Robin (17 February 2018). "'Let's take back control of our futures': Young campaigner Femi Oluwole's plan to overturn Brexit". London Evening Standard. London. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  11. ^ Chappell, Peter (12 March 2019). "Seventy per cent of young people voted Remain—Lara Spirit is demanding they are heard". Prospect. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  12. ^ a b Ktena, Natalie (28 January 2019). "Why I'm taking a gap year to fight Brexit". BBC. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  13. ^ Embury-Dennis, Tom (14 February 2018). "'Our Future, Our Choice': Campaign launched for young people who want Brexit stopped". The Independent. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  14. ^ "Perspective – 'Keep the door open for us': The fight to keep the UK in the EU". France 24. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  15. ^ Nsubuga, Jimmy (27 November 2018). "Big blue anti-Brexit bus pulls into Westminster for Parliament 'take over'". Metro. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  16. ^ Jankowicz, Mia (25 April 2019). "'Nigel Farage IS racist': Femi schools Brexit Party activist". The New European. Archived from the original on 28 April 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  17. ^ Read, Jonathon (22 April 2019). "'Stop the fake news' – former Farage adviser slammed for immigration mistruths in TV interview". The New European. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  18. ^ "Femi Oluwole". The Independent. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  19. ^ Oluwole, Femi (22 May 2019). "The Brexit party's toxic rhetoric doesn't represent most leave voters". The Guardian. London. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  20. ^ "Femi Oluwole". Metro. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  21. ^ "Femi Oluwole". Talkradio. Archived from the original on 7 June 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  22. ^ "The Londoner: Brexit Party chair Richard Tice warns Femi: I'll sue". London Evening Standard. 23 July 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  23. ^ Randall, Angus (24 July 2019). "Femi Oluwole: 'I won't apologise to Richard Tice'". Talkradio. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  24. ^ Butler, Alexander (1 July 2024). "Black journalist removed from Reform UK rally by security". The Independent. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
  25. ^ Milton, Josh (6 May 2020). "Anti-Brexit campaigner Femi Oluwole felt the need to assure everyone he's 'not gay' before singing a song from Empire". PinkNews. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
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