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Second EU referendum petition reaches 1.5m signatures Petition to hold second EU referendum reaches 2m signatures
(about 3 hours later)
A parliamentary petition calling for a second referendum has attracted more than 1.5m signatures, even as unprecedented demand temporarily crashed the website. The backlash against Brexit has strengthened with more than 2 million people signed a parliamentary petition calling for a second EU referendum.
On Friday a government website saw an “exceptionally high” number of visits as hundreds of thousands of signatures were added to a second referendum e-petition in the wake of Britain’s leave vote. Demand for a fresh vote was so high that it crashed the parliament.uk website on Friday as the petition was shared widely on social media and new signatures were added at a rate of more than 100,000 an hour.
Related: EU parliament leader: we want Britain out as soon as possible By 6pm on Saturday, more than 146,000 people had signed another petition calling on the London mayor to declare the capital independent from the UK so that it could stay in the EU, with supporters tweeting under the hashtag #londependence.
By Saturday afternoon, more than 1.5 million people had signed up, 15 times the number needed for the issue to be raised in parliament. Related: UK business leaders caution against hasty EU exit
Senior Labour figures also called for parliament to overturn the referendum result. David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, said: “Wake up. We do not have to do this. We can stop this madness and bring this nightmare to an end through a vote in parliament. Our sovereign parliament needs to now vote on whether we should exit the EU.
The petition, set up by William Oliver Healey, states: “We the undersigned call upon HM government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based on a turnout less than 75%, there should be another referendum.” “The referendum was an advisory, non-binding referendum. The leave campaign’s platform has already unravelled and some people wish they hadn’t voted to leave. Parliament now needs to decide whether we should go forward with Brexit and there should be a vote in parliament next week.
On Thursday, 51.9% of voters opted to leave the EU, and 48.1% voted to remain part of the bloc. “Let us not destroy our economy on the basis of lies and the hubris of Boris Johnson.”
A map of the petition’s signatures indicated that most activity was in England’s major cities. The highest number of signatories came from London, where most boroughs backed remain in the referendum. The petition for a second EU referendum was set up by William Oliver Healey on 25 May. He wrote: “We the undersigned call upon HM government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based on a turnout less than 75%, there should be another referendum.”
A House of Commons spokeswoman earlier said the site had temporarily been taken out of action due to “exceptionally high volumes of simultaneous users on a single petition, significantly higher than on any previous occasion.” A parliament.uk map showed support for a second referendum was strongest in urban constituencies including Bristol West, Hornsey and Wood Green, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington North constituency, where more than 10,000 people signed the petition.
“UK parliament and the government digital service are aware of the issue and are working hard to resolve the problems as quickly as possible.” The lowest appetite was in Scotland, where some constituencies showed fewer than 500 supporters, although these areas have sparser populations on the whole.
The parliamentary petitions system is overseen by the petitions committee, who consider whether petitions that receive more than 100,000 signatures should be raised in the House. The committee is due to sit again on Tuesday. Parliament must consider all petitions that reach a threshold of 100,000 votes. Few, however, reach 200,000. The most popular previous petition, with 823,346 signatories asking the government to give meningitis B vaccines to all children. A petition calling for Donald Trump to be barred from the UK was signed by 586,935 people.
The surge came as nearly more than 100,000 people signed another petition calling on London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, to declare the capital independent from the UK and apply to join the European Union. In London, a growing number of people have been backing a debate about the future of the capital, where 70% rejected Brexit. Within 24 hours the petition on Change.org had been signed by more than 120,000 people, who backed freelance writer James O’Malley’s call: “Declare London independent from the UK and apply to join the EU”.
The Change.org petition had gathered more than 130,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon. The page, set up by James O’Malley, stated: “London is an international city, and we want to remain at the heart of Europe. Supporter John Gowers wrote: “In a typical year, London contributes £10bn to £20bn to the rest of the UK and receives nothing in return. London has no control over its borders while it remains a member of the UK.”
“Let’s face it – the rest of the country disagrees. So rather than passive-aggressively vote against each other at every election, let’s make the divorce official and move in with our friends on the continent. Miles Jackson tweeted:
“This petition is calling on mayor Sadiq Khan to declare London independent, and apply to join the EU – including membership of the Schengen zone (Umm, we’ll talk about the euro ...).” I don't think there's been a political cause in my lifetime I feel more strongly about than #londependence. I'm not British. I am a Londoner
But people outside the capital derided the petition, underlining the split between the capital and the rest of the UK. Laura Hughes from East Lothian tweeted:
#londependence London. The home of greedy recession causing bankers,where only the rich thrive.Good luck with that. Woop go London....ye.