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Revoke Article 50 Petition Becomes The Most Popular Online Petition Ever

Revoke Article 50 Petition Becomes The Most Popular Online Petition Ever

Does Brexit still mean Brexit? Who knows?

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

The petition to revoke Article 50 - the article of the Treaty of Lisbon that allows European Union member states to leave - has now become the most popular online petition in history.

At the moment, more than 4.15m people in the UK have signed the petition, titled 'Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU'.

That's around 2,000 people every minute signing up.

Obviously, the government isn't going to be swayed too far by those kind of numbers. In fact, Theresa May has already said that she has no interest in revoking Article 50. She recently spoke of how she 'would not countenance' the very idea of it.

Parliament.uk

However, if MPs vote down Theresa May's Brexit deal for a third time, revoking Article 50 could be on the table as one of several options still available to Parliament.

The petition has smashed through the threshold of 100,000 signatures, after which Parliament is required to debate the issue.


Parliament.uk

On the UK Government's petitions site, the information reads: "The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is 'the will of the people'. 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."

Boy, how people have been voting.

This landmark comes as a huge amount of people make their way to London for a protest asking for a 'People's Vote' on the outcome of Brexit.

Up to a million people could gather in the nation's capital to demand that their voices be heard.

The petition was set up by Margaret Anne Georgiadou and, while it didn't take off immediately, since Wednesday it has kicked into overdrive.

PA

Speaking with LBC on Friday, Georgiadou said: "The government ignored us, they didn't have any discussion with Remainers.

"With a referendum, this is what happens because it's not very democratic, it's majoritarian, the majority wins, it's ruled by the majority for the majority - sod the minority.

"Whereas true democracy includes everybody's opinion in society."

PA

However, Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the House of Commons, has dismissed the petition's impact.

In reference to the small majority that won the 2016 EU membership referendum, she said: "Should it reach 17.4 million, I am sure there will be a very clear case for taking action."

There's a good way to go before it reaches those sort of numbers.

The petition that previously was the most popular was another Brexit one. It asked that if the winning vote in the referendum was less than 60 percent and the turnout less than 75 percent, another vote be held.

In the end, it was much closer (51.9 percent leave won, remember) with a turnout of 72.7 percent.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News, brexit, UK, Politics

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