British parliament website crashes as more than a million people sign online petition to stop Brexit in just 24 hours
- Huge numbers of people sign form, just eight days left before Britain is due to leave the EU
More than a million people signed an online petition within 24 hours asking the British government to stop Brexit, briefly crashing the site Thursday during a surge in support.
With just eight days to go until Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union, the petition launched on Wednesday admitted that a second Brexit referendum “may not happen – so vote now”.
“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 read.
A House of Commons spokesman said the technical difficulties on parliament’s e-petition website were caused by “a large and sustained load on the system”.
The petition was started by Margaret Anne Georgiadou, who told the BBC: “It’s almost like a dam bursting.