Nearly 20,000 people in Northern Ireland have signed a petition for the UK Government to revoke Article 50 and remain in the European Union.

The top three local constituencies with the most signatures were all DUP - Emma Little-Pengelly's South Belfast seat (2,802), Gavin Robinson's in East Belfast (1,438) and Lagan Valley (1,291) held by DUP whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.

As of lunchtime yesterday, out of over three million who had signed the petition on the official Parliament petitions website, 19,183 were from Northern Ireland.

For the latest figures click here

Those petitions which receive over 100,000 signatures get scheduled for a debate in Parliament.

However, Prime Minister Theresa May has said she "will not countenance" revoking Article 50.

The Petitions Committee said nearly 2,000 signatures were being completed every minute over lunchtime on Thursday, leading to the website crashing because of unprecedented demand.

Many took to social media claiming people who were not UK nationals or UK residents were signing the petition.

A House of Commons spokesman said: "Anyone who is a UK resident or a British citizen can sign a petition.

"This includes British citizens living overseas."

Commons leader Andrea Leadsom dismissed the petition as not being on the same scale as the pro-Brexit vote in the 2016 referendum, which saw 17.4m people vote to take the UK out of the EU.

Belfast Telegraph