Petition to revoke Article 50 has passed 5 million signatures

An online petition urging the Government to cancel Brexit has passed five million signatures.
Screenshot taken at 9am on Monday, March 25, 2019.Screenshot taken at 9am on Monday, March 25, 2019.
Screenshot taken at 9am on Monday, March 25, 2019.

The Revoke Article 50 petition is the most popular ever submitted to the Parliament website, having leapt ahead of the 4.1 million signatures amassed by a 2016 petition calling for a second EU referendum.

The milestone comes the day after around a million people attended a march on Westminster calling for a People's Vote.

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MP Anna Soubry of the Independent Group shared a photo of the petition passing the mark, tweeting: "This is serious!"

Screenshot taken at 9am on Monday, March 25, 2019.Screenshot taken at 9am on Monday, March 25, 2019.
Screenshot taken at 9am on Monday, March 25, 2019.

The petition has had the highest rate of sign-ups on record, according to Parliament's official Petitions Committee, adding over two million signatures in 24 hours.

By contrast, a pro-Brexit petition on the Parliament website which urges the Government to leave the EU without a deal has received 455,000 signatures.

The Prime Minister ruled out halting the Brexit process when in Brussels on Thursday, telling reporters: "I do not believe that we should be revoking Article 50."

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On Sunday, Chancellor Philip Hammond told Sky News's Sophy Ridge a second referendum was a "perfectly coherent position" which "deserves to be considered along with the other proposals".

The petition, started in late February, leapt in popularity following the Prime Minister's appeal to the public on Wednesday where she told frustrated voters: "I am on your side."

It quickly passed the 100,000-signature threshold needed for it to be debated in Parliament, with the official committee revealing nearly 2,000 signatures were being completed every minute over Thursday lunchtime.

Data provided by the committee on the location of signatories was paused on Friday to aid website operations after the official website crashed numerous times.

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In a tweet, the House of Commons committee said approximately 96% of signatories were from the UK.

The website requires signatories to tick a box confirming they are a British citizen or UK resident and provide a name, email address, country and postcode.

Many celebrities and MPs have tweeted their support for Parliament to revoke the Treaty of Lisbon clause that deals with leaving the EU.

European Parliament Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt described the latest signature figure as "impressive".

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In reference to the number of votes made in the 2016 referendum, Labour MP Owen Smith tweeted: "If it gets to 17.42 million, can we just stop Brexit?

"Asking for a friend (16,141,241 of them)."

On Saturday former Ukip leader Nigel Farage described the Prime Minister's Brexit policy as "one of the saddest chapters in the history of our nation" as he rejoined Leave-supporting marchers heading for London.

Mr Farage was speaking as he arrived at the start of the latest stage of the March to Leave, which began a week ago in Sunderland and is aiming to end up in London on the original Brexit day of March 29.

Mr Farage was greeted on Saturday morning with cheers by around 200 marchers, who had gathered in a car park of the Horse And Groom pub in the village of Linby, in Nottinghamshire.