Petition to Revoke Article 50 hits six million signatures ahead of debate

The Revoke Article 50 petition, due to be debated by MPs on Monday, is the best-supported proposal in the history of the House of Commons and Government’s e-petitions website.

Rejecting the often-repeated claim that EU withdrawal is the ‘will of the people’, it calls for the revocation of the Article 50 letter informing the European Council of the UK’s intention to leave.

The Article 50 letter can be withdrawn by the UK unilaterally, without the need for EU agreement, leaving Britain free to continue as a member on its current terms.

The petition quickly passed the 100,000-signature threshold needed for it to be debated in parliament, with the official committee revealing nearly 2,000 signatures were being completed every minute at one point.

European Council president Donald Tusk said they must not be ignored.

He said:’You cannot betray the six million people who signed the petition to revoke Article 50, the one million people who marched for a people’s vote, or the increasing majority of people who want to remain in the European Union.

‘They may feel that they are not sufficiently represented by their UK parliament, but they must feel that they are represented by you in this chamber because they are Europeans.’

A 2016 petition calling for a second EU referendum should the winning vote and turnout not reach a certain threshold had been the most signed petition, at almost 4.2 million.

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The Revoke Article 50 petition also passed another proposal which sought to prevent Donald Trump from making a state visit to the UK, which had 1.9 million sign-ups.