Petition demanding MPs CANCEL Brexit to avoid No Deal soars past 1MILLION names

Celebrity Remainers including Hugh Grant and Annie Lennox are among more than one million people who have signed a petition today to cancel Brexit to avoid No Deal.

Grant claimed every ‘sane’ person in the country was signing the plea, which was also backed by Professor Brian Cox and Jennifer Saunders.  

Rising rapidly every minute it passed the seven-figure milestone shortly before 3pm after Theresa May made a speech blaming Parliament for a delay to Brexit last night. 

The petition passed 10,000 names on Monday soon after it was created. Parliament’s petition site crashed repeatedly today as the number of signatures rose.

Despite verification checks including a signatory’s post code and email addresses, the data from the petition appeared to suggest some names may have been added from overseas. The rule of Parliament’s petition site say only UK citizens can sign. 

As people flocked to the campaign today, Mrs May was back in front of the cameras on arrival at the EU summit in Brussel – refusing to rule out No Deal and insisting Brexit had to be delivered.  

The petition crashed past 1,000,000 signatures shortly before 3pm today after backing from a host of celebrities

A map showing where people have signed shows concentrations of support in cities such as London, Oxford and Edinburgh

A map showing where people have signed shows concentrations of support in cities such as London, Oxford and Edinburgh

The petition states: ‘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.’ 

The Government is obliged to offer a written response and it will be considered for a debate in Parliament – but it will not be staged before exit day on March 29.

A map showing where people have signed shows concentrations of support in cities such as London, Oxford and Edinburgh.  

A raft of public figures have promoted the petition since Mrs May’s controversial speech in Downing Street last night. 

Hugh Grant said: ‘I’ve signed. And it looks like every sane person in the country is signing too.

‘National emergency. Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU.’

Anne Lennox said the petition was ‘currently gaining 100,000 signatures an hour’. 

Actor Eddie Marsan urged his followers to sign, tweeting: ‘In years to come, when future generations look back on Brexit and how this country was taken over by fanatical ideologues, to the left andto the right, they’ll ask ”where were you? What did you do?”.’

TV physicist Brian Cox said: ‘I’ve signed this petition to revoke A50 and deal with the consequences afterwards – referendum, election, whatever.

‘I have no idea whether these things do any good but after May’s astonishingly irresponsible speech this evening I’ll give anything a go.’ 

A raft of public figures have promoted the petition since Mrs May's controversial speech in Downing Street last night

A raft of public figures have promoted the petition since Mrs May’s controversial speech in Downing Street last night

Margaret Anne Georgiadou, who started the petition, told the BBC: ‘I became like every other Remainer – very frustrated that we’ve been silenced and ignored for so long.

‘So I think now it’s almost like a dam bursting, because we’ve been held back in a sense – it’s almost like last chance saloon now.’

She said the petition ‘didn’t do very well for a week’.

The Petitions Committee said: ‘As many of you have guessed, the number of people using the site has caused problems this morning.

‘It’s a mix of people reloading the front page to watch the signature count go up and people trying to sign petitions.’

Theresa May’s deputy official spokesman said the Government had said ‘12,000 times’ it would not revoke Article 50, adding: ‘It is not something that she is prepared to do.’  

Parliament's petition site crashed repeatedly today as the number of signatures rose

Parliament’s petition site crashed repeatedly today as the number of signatures rose

Mrs May has arrived in Brussels today to ask the EU to delay Brexit until June – but wouldn’t rule out leaving with No Deal next week if she is defeated in the Commons again.

The Prime Minister is meeting French President Emmanuel Macron and President of the European Council Donald Tusk before addressing the 27 EU leaders to beg them to accept a three-month Article 50 extension. 

As she arrived for the summit – which was meant to the last one Britain would ever attend as an EU member – she said: ‘This is a matter of persona regret for me but a short extension would give Parliament time to make a final choice that delivers on the result of the referendum.’ 

She twice refused to rule out a No Deal Brexit on March 29 but added: ‘I still want to leave with a deal’. 

Mrs May added: ‘What matters is that we recognise that Brexit is the decision of the British people – we need to deliver on that. We’re nearly three years on from the original vote – it is now the time for Parliament to decide’.

Theresa May has arrived in Brussels to request a delay to Brexit and refused to rule out leaving with No Deal in eight days

Theresa May has arrived in Brussels to request a delay to Brexit and refused to rule out leaving with No Deal in eight days

Mrs May said she felt 'deep regret' that she needed to delay Brexit but again urged MPs to back her deal next week

Mrs May said she felt ‘deep regret’ that she needed to delay Brexit but again urged MPs to back her deal next week

The PM will meet EU leaders before presenting to the 27 heads explaining why they should grant a delay to Brexit

The PM will meet EU leaders before presenting to the 27 heads explaining why they should grant a delay to Brexit

Today Mrs May faces a torrent of anger from raging MPs who branded her a ‘f***ing disgrace’ for using a TV speech to scold them for not backing her Brexit deal, accusing her critics of playing ‘political games’.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted the PM is ‘under extraordinary pressure’ after failing to keep her promise that Britain would leave the EU on March 29.  

Last night her Downing Street address was meant to persuade Brexiteer Tories, Labour rebels and the DUP to back her deal – after the EU said it would only grant a short delay to Article 50 if the Prime Minister can win a vote on her plan before next Friday. 

But it already appears to have spectacularly backfired ahead of today’s crucial summit in Belgium with MPs branding her words ‘toxic’, ‘contemptuous’, ‘incendiary and irresponsible’ with former Tory minister Sam Gyimah, claiming ‘some MPs are receiving death threats’.

The Prime Minister’s deputy spokeswoman dismissed claims that Mrs May’s attempt to blame MPs for the Brexit mess put them at risk of intimidation or attack and said: ‘There is no evidence that is the case’.

Prime Minister Theresa May walks to her plane at RAF Northolt as she heads to Brussels for an EU summit, which was meant to be Britain's last as members of the EU

Prime Minister Theresa May walks to her plane at RAF Northolt as she heads to Brussels for an EU summit, which was meant to be Britain’s last as members of the EU

Theresa May leaves Downing Street for Brussels as her Brexit deal hangs in the balance 

Mr Hunt said ‘no Prime Minister in living memory has been tested’ in the way that Mrs May has and claimed the tone of her speech reflected her ‘extreme frustration’ at the current Brexit stalemate, which he said is ‘sapping our national confidence’.

Jeremy Hunt: There’s no guarantee the PM can bring back her vote 

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he does not know if Theresa May’s Brexit deal will be brought back to Parliament next week, as he warned of ‘extreme unpredictability’ if the issue is not resolved.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘If we are in the same situation this time next week then only a very limited list of things could happen: Parliament could vote to revoke Article 50, which is cancelling the Brexit process – I think that’s highly unlikely…

‘There could be an EU emergency summit to offer us an extension and we don’t know what the length will be and it could have some very onerous conditions – they could say, for example, ‘We’ll give you an extension if you have a second referendum’.

‘Again, I think it’s very unlikely Parliament would vote for that. And then we have no-deal as the legal default on Friday.

‘So the choice that we have now is one of resolving this issue or extreme unpredictability.’

Mr Hunt said ‘no prime minister in living memory has been tested’ in the way that Mrs May has.

‘Let’s not forget the extraordinary pressure that she is personally under, and I think she does feel a sense of frustration,’ he told Today.

‘She is absolutely determined to deliver what people voted for and I think … the Brexit process has sapped our national confidence and we need to remember now what we’re capable of as a country.

‘And we need to remember that the economy has actually not suffered in the way many people thought it would and we have a chance now to resolve this and move on, to close this chapter, move on to the next chapter.

‘And we will be able to say, as one of the oldest parliamentary democracies in the world, that we were faced with a very difficult decision – a decision that most of the political establishment didn’t want to go ahead – and we’ve delivered it because we are a country where we do what the people say.’

Defending the Prime Minister, who is facing calls to quit, he told the BBC: ‘Let’s not forget the extraordinary pressure she is under. She was expressing her frustration and the public’s frustration’ – but added: ‘I don’t think we should all make this about Theresa May’.

Tellingly the Foreign Secretary twice admitted it is not yet certain Mrs May can bring back her deal for a third vote – but said if it’s defeated there are three options: No Deal, revoke Article 50 or a ‘long delay’ to Brexit. 

The Prime Minister will travel to Brussels today to ask for an extension until the end of June to try to get her plan through arriving at around midday. She will address EU leaders at around 3pm.

Last night Mrs May appeared to misjudge a live TV speech by blast MPs for not backing her Brexit deal as she heads to Brussels today to beg for a three-month Article 50 extension.

Tory Remainer Sam Gyimah hit out at his party leader and said: ‘Resorting to the blame game, as the PM is doing, is a low blow. Democracy loses when a Prime Minister who has set herself against the House of Commons then blames MPs for doing their job. It’s Toxic. She knows MPs are receiving hate mail. We’re repeatedly being urged to hold their noses to the stench of this deal and vote for it. That cannot be the blueprint for our great country and I cannot support it’.

Potential ‘switcher’ Lisa Nandy claimed last night that Mrs May had blown her chance and said: ‘There’s absolutely no chance she is going to win over MPs in sufficient numbers after that statement. It was an attack on liberal democracy itself. I will not support a government that takes such a reckless approach’.

But Brexit Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said today he believes more MPs will back the Prime Minister’s deal after her intervention and insisted she has a ‘good shot at landing the deal and winning a vote next week’.

He added: ‘I don’t think there is a blame game at all- she set out very clearly where we are in the process. There is a deal. If we get the deal through, we can get a short extension to the Article 50 process and we can leave the EU.

‘I think saying: ‘I’m with you’ makes perfect sense. The cab driver who drove me here this morning said: ‘I just want to leave…get the deal done and I want to be out of the EU’. The Prime Minister very much reflected that opinion, which is widely held. People are fed up…they want to leave the EU’.

Conservative former minister Sir Oliver Letwin said he believed MPs would support a Norway-style Brexit deal and could seize control of Brexit, possibly on Monday.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that MPs needed to establish if there is a majority in favour of an alternative plan if the Prime Minister’s deal is defeated again next week.

Sir Oliver said: ‘I believe, for example, that we will probably on that day be able to get a cross-party majority in favour of what is sometimes called Norway plus and sometimes called Common Market 2.0, which is an arrangement where we remain in the single market and we have a customs arrangement with the EU and that has not yet been tested.’

 

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