Daily Express website readers have cried foul over its reporting of an online poll which asked whether readers still wanted to leave the EU.

Press Gazette found that the online poll widget was still live on a “cached” version of the web page which announced the vote on Friday. And when we cast our vote it said that the results were 55 per cent in favour of remaining in the EU.

But a news story announcing the poll result posted on Monday said that it found 60 per cent of those who responded were in favour of leaving the European Union.

The poll began on Friday and the news story announcing the result ran on Monday, with an update yesterday (Tuesday).

The Express has not responded Press Gazette’s requests for a comment. Press Gazette understands that the website is edited separately from the print edition.

The news story announcing the result refers to the vote as a 24-hour-poll, so it could could be that the Express is only counting votes cast in the first 24 hours. One commenter suggested the vote was hijacked by remain supporters.

It said: “In the 24-hour poll which went live on Friday a total of 60 per cent said they would vote for Brexit, compared to the 52 per cent of Britons who did exactly a year ago, a poll of 2,300 people on Express.co.uk has shown.”

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The story setting up the online poll said: “It was a close-run thing but ultimately 52 per cent said they’d had enough of the unchecked powers, over-weaning arrogance and out-and-out empire-building of the unelected bureaucrats and MEP’s in Brussels.

“Since that day the viciousness of the Remoaners campaign to try and overturn the democratic will of the British people has reached jaw-dropping levels – as have the many attempts to derail the political process.

“They claim Brexit voting Brits would change their mind and positively fall in love with the European dream if given a second chance to vote.

“We’re not so sure, so that’s why we’ve set up the our Brexit Referendum II poll and are asking readers to cast their vote as if the poll had been held TODAY.”

In print the Express was the most strident national newspaper supporter of a vote in favour of leaving the European Union last year – both in terms of its comment pieces and editorial coverage, which had a strong emphasis on concerns about immigration.

The British Election Study suggested that 70 per cent of Daily Express readers voted for Brexit.

Readers commenting on the story have been quick to cry foul.

Mr MT said: “This article is a lie. The majority of people who voted in this poll voted to Remain – reaching around 55%. It was up there for all to see. Shame on you for not having the courage to print an honest account of your own poll.”

Tony Rnad: “This article is a travesty of lies. It states that 60% of its poll still supports leave. This is not true. The poll of 65400+ voted at 55% to remain. This final poll figure may be an embarrassment to the Daily Express and it’s core readership, but if this paper had any moral claim to be an honest paper then they would acknowledge it and publish the result. Instead they chose to continue a lie that they know is a lie.”

Another reader, GerryGable, said: “This poll is nonsense it was hacked early on by remoaners.”

Andrew Barnes said: “I did ask the writer of the article if it would be updated and she said the article was correct at time of posting….the article was updated today but the headline and content hasn’t changed. Odd.”