The petition calling on the government to revoke Article 50, which became the biggest petition presented to government of all time, ends today.
Started in February by 77-year-old Margaret Georgiadou, the petition asks the government to “revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU”.
“The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is ‘the will of the people’,” says the petition statement.
“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.”
Initially, the petition did not get much traction. But in March, as the initial Brexit deadline loomed, signatures suddenly started coming in in their thousands.
As the petition grew, Georgiadou had to shut her Facebook page after she received “torrents of abuse” on social media.
It grew so fast that at one stage the government’s servers struggled to handle the number of signatures being registered. It quickly became the biggest petition on the government’s e-petition platform.
Later, Commons records revealed that it was the biggest petition presented to parliament of all time.
READ: The petition to revoke Article 50 is now the biggest in historyHaving easily broken the required 100,000 signatures needed for a debate in parliament, the topic was debated on April 1. The government responded that it is “firm policy not to revoke Article 50”.
“This government will not revoke Article 50. We will honour the result of the 2016 referendum and work with Parliament to deliver a deal that ensures we leave the European Union,” said the response.
All petitions last for six months and this historic petition will close today.
At time of writing, the petition stands at 6,102,580 signatures, nearly 11% of the UK population.
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