A PUBLIC petition demanding that Brexit be abandoned has soared past three million signatures.
The Prime Minister, however, has ruled out revoking Article 50, insisting it was her “duty” to withdraw the UK from the EU.
With the highest sign-up rate on record, more than two million people had pledged their support by the time she fielded questions from reporters in Brussels on Thursday.
Asked whether she thought the public's view had shifted towards revoking Article 50, Theresa May said: "If you look back to what happened in the referendum, we saw the biggest democratic exercise in our history.
"And there was a clear result that we should leave the European Union.
"We said here's the vote, what is your decision, and we will deliver on it.
"And I believe it's our duty as a Government and as a Parliament to deliver on that vote."
READ MORE: EU chiefs reject Theresa May's Brexit extension proposal
The petition on the Parliament website, which calls for the UK to remain in the EU, quickly gained support in the wake of the Prime Minister's speech on Wednesday night and Revoke Article 50 started to trend on Twitter.
As of 2pm on Friday, more than 3 million people had pledged their support to the cause.
The Petitions Committee said nearly 2000 signatures were being completed every minute over Thursday lunchtime, crashing the website because of the unprecedented hit-rate.
It quickly passed the 100,000-signature threshold needed for it to be debated in Parliament.
It has been promoted by a variety of celebrities and politicians on social media.
I have just signed this petition to #RevokeArticle50 it’s currently gaining 100k signatures an hour!
— Annie Lennox (@AnnieLennox) March 21, 2019
Please join me, sign & share (the site keeps crashing under the traffic so stick with it) https://t.co/U7mTUBM5xo
Now nearly two and a half million. Do sign https://t.co/Ljq81BumCp
— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) March 22, 2019
Revoke petition now at 2.6 million. This is a speech I made in the Commons when only 12 MPs backed the revoke amendment. I said it was probably the most popular Brexit option. It couldn’t be properly debated then. It must be properly considered now. https://t.co/Qh8NhZUti7
— Pete Wishart (@PeteWishart) March 22, 2019
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Article 50 could be unilaterally revoked by parliament after six Scottish politicians successfully raised the case.
READ MORE: The story of how six Scottish politicians took on the UK and the EU
Commons leader Andrea Leadsom laughed off the potential of the petition to force politicians into action, saying only if it reached more than 17.4 million signatures – equal to the number of people of voted for Brexit – would the Government would be likely to act.
"Should it reach more than 17.4 million respondents then I'm sure there would be a very clear case for taking action"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) March 21, 2019
Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom on #RevokeArticle50 petition that crashed Parliament websitehttps://t.co/h0S3Lx897w pic.twitter.com/SOvB3o3GAW
On Thursday, EU leaders said Brexit could be delayed from March 29 to May 22 – but only on the condition that MPs vote for Mrs May's deal next week.
If it is rejected in the third "meaningful vote" then the UK would have until April 12 to tell the European Council a way forward.
An extension could continue for several more months if Britain agreed to vote in May's European Parliament elections.
A House of Commons spokesman said: "We know that the petitions website has been experiencing problems due to the number of people using the site.
"This is a mixture of people signing petitions and refreshing the site to see changes to the number of signatures.
"The majority of people are now able to use the website and we and the Government Digital Service are working to fix any outstanding problems as soon as possible."
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