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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Dan Bloom

Revoke Article 50 Brexit petition hits 3million signatures

More than 3million people have now signed an online petition calling on the government to revoke Article 50 and stay in the EU.

Tens of thousands of names an hour were added to the petition on parliament's website as EU leaders thrashed out a plan to delay Brexit last night.

Under a new agreement, the March 29 exit date will be put back two weeks to April 12 if MPs do not back a deal next week. If there is a deal Brexit will be delayed to May 22.

But calls are growing among Remainers - who Brexit march 2019: London date, time and speakers at People's Vote protest - to cancel Brexit altogether by revoking the Article 50 legal process to leave.

Under EU law, the UK has to ask 27 EU leaders for extensions but can decide to revoke Brexit unilaterally if it revokes.

Jeremy Corbyn refused yesterday to rule out backing a plan to revoke Article 50 to stop No Deal, saying it was "hypothetical".

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Jeremy Corbyn refused to rule out backing a plan to revoke Article 50 (Ian Vogler)

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"The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is 'the will of the people'. We need to put a stop to this claim by proving the strength of public support now, for remaining in the EU," the petition said.

EU chief Donald Tusk last night said revoking Article 50 will be one of the options available if there is no deal by April 12.

Parliament must consider holding a debate on all petitions that gain more than 100,000 signatures.

However, Theresa May last night said she was against revoking Article 50.

Brexit march 2019: London date, time and speakers at People's Vote protest 

And when asked for the prime minister’s view on the petition , a No 10 spokeswoman said May worried that failing to deliver Brexit would cause “potentially irreparable damage to public trust”.

She said: “The prime minister has long been clear that failing to deliver on the referendum result would be a failure of our democracy and something she couldn’t countenance.”

Parliament's website crashed several times as it struggled under the weight of people signing the petition.

It has experienced the fastest ever signing-up rate of any petition and is by far the most popular of the current parliament.

It has also outstripped a petition backed by more than 1.8 million people calling for US President Donald Trump not to make a state visit to the UK.

More than 4million people signed another petition in 2016 which called for another EU referendum in the event that neither the remain or leave camps achieved 60 percent of the vote.

A huge march against Brexit is set to be held in London on Saturday.

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