A petition on British Parliament’s website to stop Brexit and remain in the European Union topped 4,400,000 signatures on Saturday, one of the fastest-growing on record with traffic bringing down the site at least twice.
“The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is ‘the will of the people,’” the petition reads. “We need to put a stop to this claim by proving the strength of public support now, for remaining in the EU. A People’s Vote may not happen — so vote now.”
The call for Prime Minister Theresa May to revoke Article 50 is now one of the most popular petitions ever on Parliament’s site, surpassing 2016’s petition calling for a second referendum on Brexit and crashing the site early Thursday morning as traffic spiked. In order for Parliament to take it up for debate, a petition has to collect more than 100,000 signatures.
British Parliament website
“Between 80,000 and 100,000 people have been simultaneously viewing the petition to revoke article 50,” the Parliament’s petition committee said on Twitter. “Nearly 2,000 signatures are being completed every minute. The rate of signing is the highest the site has ever had to deal with and we have had to make some changes to ensure the site remains stable and open for signatures and new petitions.”
See also: Brexit Brief: Europe throws Theresa May, and the U.K., a lifeline
As the number of signatures continued to skyrocket, the petition’s creator, Margaret Georgiadou, said Saturday she had received death threats over the phone and was closing her Facebook account.
IN the past 10 hours have had three death threats over the phone, my fb account has been hacked andhad a torrent of abuse on Facebook. Am closing my FB account.
— margaret georgiadou (@madgie1941) March 23, 2019
The flood of signatures comes just days before March 29, when Britain was originally scheduled to split from the European Union, and as hundreds of thousands of anti-Brexit demonstrators clogged the streets of London, calling for a new referendum on whether to leave the EU.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted a video of himself joining the demonstrators, writing, “Enough is enough” and “No matter how you voted, I’m sure you’ll agree — Brexit is a complete and utter mess.”
No matter how you voted, I’m sure you’ll agree - #Brexit is a complete and utter mess.
The British people didn't vote for a bad Brexit deal. The British people didn't vote for a no-deal Brexit.
It's time to give us - the British people - the final say. #PeoplesVote
