A BRAVE band of pro-immigration protestors took to their town centre on Monday to stand up against small-mindedness.

The friends marched into Wantage Market Place waving European Union flags and placards to show solidarity to ‘our cousins from the continent’.

They used the opportunity to talk to shoppers and passers-by, and were challenged on their views by one woman who told them: “I just don’t want those Muslims here taking our jobs.”

Lead organiser Caroline Wills-Wright said: “The cry from a lot of people is ‘we want our country back’.

“The country I want back is the country I saw at the London 2012 Olympics when we were welcoming to the whole world.

“We want to be in an open, non-judgemental society which is building for the future.”

The Wantage demonstration was part of a national day of action dubbed ‘One Day Without Us’.

People took to the streets from Edinburgh to Exeter to show solidarity with all migrants living and working in the UK feeling uncertain about the future in the wake of the EU referendum result.

Ms Wills-Wright, 60, said that she works alongside scientists from around the globe at the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (CEH) in Wallingford.

She added: “Without immigration there would be empty places in our hospitals, care homes and our research establishments.

“This would be a poorer, emptier and sadder place.”