The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 2 plus 3 plus 7 letter word GO TO THE COUNTRY
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
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More clues leading to the result GO TO THE COUNTRY
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Ask the people/to move down" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case ask the people/to move down = go to the country.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.