An official petition urging the British government to reject the United Nations’ Global Compact for Migration is close to 45,000 signatures, but Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to issue a response.

The compact is reported to have been shaped in large part by the pro-mass migration government of Germany’s Angela Merkel — who launched an “unusually passionate” defence of the document in November — and has proved highly controversial, with countries led by national populist governments pulling out one after another as its shape has become clear.

Leading the charge was the Donald Trump administration in the United States in late 2017, with the American ambassador to the United Nations declaring: “We will decide how best to control our borders and who will be allowed to enter our country… The global approach in the [compact] is simply not compatible with U.S. sovereignty.”

The U.S. has been followed out by an increasing number of patriotic governments in Central and South-Eastern Europe in recent weeks — much to the chagrin of the European Union, whose unelected High Representative has championed the compact — and by the populist coalition in Italy, comprised of Matteo Salvini’s League (La Lega) and Luigi Di Maio’s Five Star Movement (M5S) — although the Mediterranean country’s parliament may still push it through.

In the United Kingdom, however, the “Conservative” Party government’s decision to sign up to the UN Compact — despite a long-standing but spectacularly and possibly deliberately missed target to reduce immigration “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands” — has attracted little mainstream discussion, perhaps due to the Brexit debate’s near-total dominance of the political space.

SIGN THE PETITION: The United Kingdom should not sign the UN Global Migration Compact which normalises illegal immigration and makes it a crime to oppose immigration. https://t.co/ov3WJPyt2r — David Kurten ن (@davidkurten) November 27, 2018

The grassroots petition to the British government and parliament to reject the compact reads simply: “The UK should not agree the UN’s Global Compact for Migration. The UN’s Intergovernmental Conference will be held in Marrakech, Morocco on 10 and 11 December 2018. Like Hungary, the UK should not sign.”

The anti-mass migration, pro-sovereignty Hungarian government, led by the recently Chuck Norris approved Viktor Orbán, believes the UN Compact is an attempt to “legalise illegal immigration” worldwide, and that references to expanding the definition of “hate speech” to include certain language around migration are an attempt to close down debate on the issue.

The compact’s defenders claim it is not “legally binding”, but the Hungarian find this dubious “in view of the fact that the document contains the word ‘obligation’ on eighty occasions”, and at least one law professor has conceded that it may create a legal “framework” which international lawyers and judges will use to interpret the law.

The British petition against the compact should have received a Government response after breaking the 10,000 mark, but has now been waiting for one seven days.

If it reaches 100,000 it the Backbench Business Committee in the House of Commons will have to consider if for a full parliamentary debate.

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery