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A petition calling for a second EU referendum has hit 1.6 MILLION signatures and become the most popular in parliamentary history.

The surge came as more than 100,000 people signed a petition calling on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to declare the capital independent from the UK and apply to join the European Union.

On Friday, the government's petitions website saw such an "exceptionally high" number of visits it crashed.

And by Saturday morning, the petition was being signed by more than 100,000 people an hour.

Only 100,000 signatures are needed to trigger a debate on the topic in Parliament.

It was set up by William Oliver Healey who 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."

On Thursday 51.9% of votes were cast to leave the EU, versus 48.1% for remaining part of the bloc.

A map of the 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.

(Image: Getty)

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn rejected calls for a second vote.

He said: "The referendum has taken place, a decision has been made, I think we have got to accept that decision and work out our relationship with Europe in the future.

A House of Commons spokeswoman earlier said the site had temporarily been taken out of action on Friday due to "exceptionally high volumes of simultaneous users on a single petition, significantly higher than on any previous occasion."

"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 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.

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A separate Change.org petition calling on Mr Khan to instigate the secession of London from the rest of the UK gathered more than 100,000 signatures by Saturday morning.

The page, set up by James O'Malley, stated: "London is an international city, and we want to remain at the heart of Europe.

"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.

(Image: Getty)

"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...)."

:: Follow the referendum petition's progress here and the London petition here