An online petition calling upon the government to revoke Article 50 the part of the Treaty of the European Union that allows countries to withdraw has attracted more than a million signatures since Wednesday night. According to the rules of Parliament, any petition that gets more than 10,000 signatures will be responded to by the government, and any that receives more than 100,000 signatures will be considered for a debate within the House of Commons. It's fair to say that this issue is already up for discussion in Parliament. In fact, they've spoken about basically nothing else for nearly three years. The petition reads: "The government repeatedly claims to exit 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."
The petition's stated aim. Anyway, the number of people clamouring to sign up to the petition was so vast that the website crashed under the weight of sheer numbers. We're led to believe that it is now back up and running again, though. This new petition comes as the Prime Minister Theresa May travels to Brussels to ask the 27 other European Union member states to approve a short extension to the UK's Brexitdeadline of March 29.
This morning, the Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told BBC Radio 4 that the likelihood of revoking Article 50 is 'very unlikely' if still possible. Earlier today, the Leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, addressed both the technical problems with the website and the petition itself. Leadsom said: "Should it reach 17.4 million respondents then I am sure there will be a very clear case for taking action."It's absolutely right that people do have the opportunity to put their views and that can then spark yet another Brexit debate."
It was ruled in December by the European Court of Justice that the UK can revoke Article 50 if Parliament decides to. The petition was created by Margaret Anne Georgiadou. She said that whilst it didn't take off immediately, it has now been a runaway success. She told the BBC: "I became like every other Remainder very frustrated that we've been silenced and ignored for so long."So I think now it's almost like a dam bursting because we've been held back in a sense it's almost like last chance saloon now."
The petition has gained traction after being shared by many pro-remain public figures and politicians. However, it has also been criticized by pro-leave campaigners (as you might expect).