EU second referendum petition surges towards one million signatures after Brexit vote

A petition calling for a second EU referendum is surging towards a million signatures despite unprecedented demand crashing the website.

Hundreds of thousands of people signed the document which stated: "We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based a turnout less than 75% there should be another referendum."

On Friday a government website saw an "exceptionally high" number of visits as dissatisfied voters rushed to sign the second referendum e-petition in the wake of 52 per cent of Brits voting to leave the EU.

A map of the signatures indicated that most activity was in England's major cities. The highest number of signatories came from London, where most boroughs backed Remain in the referendum.

A House of Commons spokeswoman earlier said the site had temporarily been taken out of action due to "exceptionally high volumes of simultaneous users on a single petition, significantly higher than on any previous occasion."

"UK Parliament and the Government Digital Service are aware of the issue and are working hard to resolve the problems as quickly as possible."

The parliamentary petitions system is overseen by the Petitions Committee, who consider whether petitions that receive more than 100,000 signatures should be raised in the house. The committee is due to sit again on Tuesday.

A Change.org petition calling on Mr Khan to instigate the secession of London from the rest of the UK had passed 100,000 signatures by Saturday morning.

The page, set up by James O'Malley, stated: "London is an international city, and we want to remain at the heart of Europe.

"Let's face it - the rest of the country disagrees. So rather than passive aggressively vote against each other at every election, let's make the divorce official and move in with our friends on the continent.