A PUBLIC petition demanding that Brexit be abandoned has gained over five million signatures.

More than two million people had pledged their support to the record-breaking petition 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 Parliamentto deliver on that vote."

READ MORE: Joanna Cherry: Halting Brexit won't affect our independence mandate

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 2:30pm on Sunday, more than 5 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.

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.

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.