Petition calls for block on Boris Johnson plan to suspend UK parliament from mid-September ahead of Brexit deadline

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A petition calling on the government not to prorogue parliament has already been signed by more than 1.4 million people.

What is prorogation and why is Boris Johnson using it? Read more

It was launched on 15 August by Mark Johnston, a pro-EU campaigner from Reigate in Surrey, two weeks before Boris Johnson announced his request to suspend parliament.

The text of the petition reads: “Parliament must not be prorogued or dissolved unless and until the article 50 period has been sufficiently extended or the UK’s intention to withdraw from the EU has been cancelled.”

Initially it only a attracted a few hundred sign-ups but after the prime minister’s move on Wednesday interest took off and it quickly garnered more than 100,000 signatories, passing the threshold to be considered for a debate in parliament.

Just after 11pm, the petition passed the 1 million mark. In some remain-backing areas more than 5% of constituents had signed, according to a map attached to the petition. They included parliamentary seats in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Sheffield, Cambridge, Oxford, Bath, Brighton and Bristol.

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It is the fastest-growing parliamentary petition since more than 6 million people signed a statement calling for article 50 to be revoked earlier this year.