Thousands sign Article 50 petition in South Tyneside

Union and European Union flags outside the Houses of Parliament. Picture by PA

The Revoke Article 50 petition is the most popular ever submitted to the Parliament website, with more than five million people having put their names to it.

As of midday on Monday, 3,750 people in the Jarrow constituency had signed the petition – 4.5% of the population.

That rate was not quite so high in South Shields, where 3.7% of the population had added their names to the petition – 3,123 signatures.

The petition reads: “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. A People’s Vote may not happen – so vote now.”

With more than 5.5 million signatures by Monday, the petition has had the highest rate of sign-ups on record, according to Parliament’s official Petitions Committee.

By contrast, a pro-Brexit petition on the Parliament website which urges the Government to leave the EU without a deal has received 455,000 signatures.

On Sunday, Chancellor Philip Hammond told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge a second referendum was a “perfectly coherent position” which “deserves to be considered along with the other proposals”.

The petition, started in late February, leapt in popularity following the Prime Minister’s appeal to the public on Wednesday where she told frustrated voters: “I am on your side.”

It quickly passed the 100,000-signature threshold needed for it to be debated in Parliament, with the official committee revealing nearly 2,000 signatures were being completed every minute over Thursday lunchtime.