Anti-Brexit campaigners Led By Donkeys have bid farewell to the EU with a moving video, projected onto the white cliffs of Dover just hours before the UK formally leaves the union behind. 

The video shows a man identified as Second World War veteran Sid, 95, appealing to the rest of Europe with a message of unity.

“What I would like to say to you now in Holland and in Germany and France, Belgium, everybody, this is a message from the white cliffs of Dover, from Britain,” he says.

“I feel very, very sad about it all because we don’t know which way things are going,” Sid continues.

“First of all, I’m Welsh, and I’m British, and I’m European, and I’m a human being.

“So let’s all think of these lovely cliffs. Look from your side to this side, see these white cliffs, and we’re looking across at you and feeling we want to be together. And we will be together before long, I’m sure.”

As the Brexit process has drawn out over almost four years, Led By Donkeys have been responsible for a number of installations – mostly in the form of billboards and projections – holding pro-Brexit politicians to account in full view of the public. 

In the past, their campaign has taken the form of a giant billboard erected in Brussels, featuring Theresa May’s pro-Europe sentiments during tense deal negotiations, and a picture of Jacob Rees-Mogg lying down in the House of Commons projected onto Edinburgh Castle.

The video also features another veteran, brigadier Stephen Goodall, 97, who says he feels “really depressed” by the UK’s departure from the EU “because it has meant so much” to him. 

“I like to be called a European,” he adds. “And the feeling that one has of comradeship as one goes round Europe is really quite something.

“At my age I shan’t be living much longer, but I hope that for the sake of my children and my grandchildren and my great grandchildren that England, Britain, will move back to be much closer to Europe than what we have done now.”

The final moments of the video show the stars of the European flag fading one by one, until the final star remains. 

“This is our star,” the message reads. “Look after it for us.” 

Unsurprisingly, the emotional farewell video reduced some pro-remain campaigners to tears: 

The UK will formally leave the EU at 11pm on Friday, more than three-and-a-half years since 52% of voters elected to exit the bloc.