Petition for 2nd EU referendum gathers over 1 million signatures

More than one million people in Britain have signed a petition to call for a second referendum, after a surprise vote to leave the European Union sparked outrage among those who voted for Remain.

The petition on the British parliament website has gathered some 1,130,000 signatures on Saturday less than 24 hours after it was launched.

“We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based (on) a turnout less than 75% there should be another referendum,” says the petition.

A House of Commons spokeswoman said on Friday that the petition became so popular that at one point the website crashed because of “exceptionally high volumes of simultaneous users on a single petition, significantly higher than on any previous occasion.”

According to the map of the petition signatures, most of those who signed it came from England’s major cities, topped by London.

The idea of a second referendum was raised after the results of Thursday’s vote showed some 51 percent of British voters opted to leave the EU while roughly 48.10 percent of people voted to remain in the union.

The result caused some people who voted for Leave to feel regret and call the electoral services, asking if they could change their decision.

The anxiety, dubbed “Bregret,” emerged as the value of the pound tumbled and the markets crashed.

Mandy Suthi, a student who voted to leave, said she wished she had the opportunity to vote again. She said her parents and siblings also regretted their choice.

“I would go back to the polling station and vote to stay, simply because this morning the reality is kicking in,” she told ITV News.

Another voter said he would have changed his Leave vote if he knew the short-term consequences it would have for the country’s economy.

“I’m shocked that we voted for Leave, I didn’t think that was going to happen. I didn’t think my vote was going to matter too much because I thought we were just going to remain,” he told the BBC.

Meanwhile a separate petition has been signed by over more 7,500 people in London, calling on Mayor Sadiq Khan to declare the city an independent nation and apply to join the EU.

The petition’s organizer James O’Malley said the capital was “a world city” which should “remain at the heart of Europe.”

Almost 60 percent of people in London voted to remain in the EU.

All petitions on the parliament website that receive over 100,000 signatures must be considered for debate in parliament.