A petition to revoke Article 50 has this afternoon reached 1,000,000 signatures, hours after it crashed as a result of so much traffic to the site.

The petition, which was started a month ago, grew significantly overnight after Theresa May’s widely-criticised speech on Downing Street.

Anger has grown at the Prime Minister for blaming MPs for not backing her Brexit deal and leading Britain towards a no deal.

As well as the petition, people will be venting their frustration at the lack of clarity over Brexit this weekend with a huge march in central London.






LIVE: Support rapidly grows for ‘Revoke Article 50’ petition Support is growing rapidly for the ‘Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU’ Brexit petition Geplaatst door Metro op Donderdag 21 maart 2019

Revoke Article 50 began trending on Twitter following the peech and continued to be a global trend into Thursday morning.



Users were quick to share the petition, with celebrities and MPs tweeting their support for Parliament to revoke the Treaty of Lisbon clause that deals with leaving the EU.

Famous figures including actors Hugh Grant and Jennifer Saunders, TV presenter and author Caitlin Moran, physicist Brian Cox and former Labour press chief Alastair Campbell all urged their followers on social media to sign the petition.

Alongside the link, Grant wrote: ‘I’ve signed. And it looks like every sane person in the country is signing too. National emergency.’

The petition had reached more than 610,000 signatures before the website began showing an error message shortly after 9am on Thursday, with around 584,000 of those signing from the UK.

The error was later rectified and the number of signatures began increasing once again.

Theresa May went to Brussels to meet EU leaders today (Picture: Reuters)

A House of Commons spokesman said: ‘The petitions site is experiencing technical difficulties and we are working to get it running again urgently. It has been caused by a large and sustained load on the system.

‘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. Thanks for bearing with us.’

Margaret Anne Newsome Georgiadou who started the petition said: ‘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.’

The target for petitions to be considered for debate is 100,000 signatures.

Theresa May is facing a backlash from MPs as she heads to Brussels to appeal to EU leaders to grant her a delay to Brexit.

The Prime Minister’s Downing Street statement, in which she blamed MPs for failing to implement the result of the 2016 EU referendum and told frustrated voters ‘I am on your side’, was described as a ‘low blow’ by one former Tory minister.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

At one point this morning the website crashed – it is not known if it was because there were too many people on the site

But Jeremy Corbyn was also under fire after pulling out of a meeting between Mrs May and opposition party leaders because party defectors who are now members of the Independent Group turned up.



The behaviour of the Labour leader, who was also heading to Brussels on Thursday to hold talks with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, was described by one of their number – Chuka Umunna – as ‘juvenile’ at a time of national crisis.

With just eight days before the UK is due to leave the EU, the Prime Minister will make the case for extending the Article 50 withdrawal process to June 30 at a Brussels summit on Thursday.

There was a large surge in signatures after Theresa May’s speech last night

Ahead of the meeting, European Council president Donald Tusk said a ‘short’ delay should be possible – but only if MPs finally back her deal before the deadline day on March 29.

With fears in Brussels growing that the UK is heading for a no-deal break, he said he would not hesitate to call an emergency summit next week if that proved necessary.

Mrs May formally made the request for an extension to the end of June in a letter to Mr Tusk on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister had previously indicated she would seek a longer delay after her deal went down to a 149-vote defeat in last week’s second ‘meaningful vote’.

Famous figures including actors Hugh Grant and Jennifer Saunders, TV presenter and author Caitlin Moran, physicist Brian Cox and former Labour press chief Alastair Campbell all urged their followers on social media to sign the petition.

Alongside the link, Grant wrote: ‘I’ve signed. And it looks like every sane person in the country is signing too. National emergency.’