#Bregret: Could petition trigger a SECOND referendum on EU?
A parliamentary petition for a second referendum has attracted more than one million signatures despite unprecedented demand crashing the website.
The surge came as nearly 100,000 people signed a second
.
Many voters who backed Britain leaving the EU are now regretting their decision - sparking a wave of so-called "Bregret" anxiety.
On Friday a government website saw an "exceptionally high" number of visits as hundreds of thousands of signatures were added to a second referendum e-petition in the wake of Britain's Leave vote.
By the early hours of this morning more than 520,000 people had signed up, over five times the number needed for the issue to be raised in Parliament.
The petition, set up by William Oliver Healey, states: "We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the Remain or Leave vote is less than 60% based on a turnout less than 75%, there should be another referendum."
On Thursday 51.9% of votes were cast to leave the EU, versus 48.1% for remaining part of the bloc.
The petition comes just over a month after Ukip leader Nigel Farage said he would fight for a second EU referendum if the Remain campaign won by a narrow margin.
He said a small defeat for his Leave camp would be "unfinished business" and predicted pressure would grow for a re-run of the ballot.
Mr Farage told The Mirror: "In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way. If the remain campaign win two-thirds to one-third that ends it."
The petition prompted scientist and broadcaster Professor Brian Cox to tweet:
Queen guitarist Brian May added:
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 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 Change.org petition calling on Mr Khan to instigate the secession of London from the rest of the UK gathered more than 99,800 signatures by this 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.
"This petition is calling on Mayor Sadiq Khan to declare London independent, and apply to join the EU - including membership of the Schengen Zone (Umm, we'll talk about the Euro...)."
It comes as some Brexit supporters, who did not believe their vote to leave would make a difference, are admitting in the post-referendum fallout that they made a mistake.
Mandy Suthi, a student who voted to leave, told ITV News that she would tick the Remain box if she had a second chance.
"I would go back to the polling station and vote to stay, simply because this morning the reality is kicking in," she said.
Ms Suthi, who said her parents and sisters also regretted their decision to vote to leave the EU, said she was "very disappointed" with the result. "I wish we had the opportunity to vote again," she added.
Khembe Gibbons, a lifeguard from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, also said she had regrets about her decision.
Ms Gibbons tweeted that she felt "robbed" of her vote after Nigel Farage admitted on ITV's Good Morning Britain that the Leave campaign made a "mistake" in claiming that the £350 million a week reportedly given to the EU would go to the NHS.
She said: "We've left the EU, David Cameron's resigned, we're left with Boris, and Nigel has just basically given away that the NHS claim was a lie.
"I personally voted leave believing these lies, and I regret it more than anything, I feel genuinely robbed of my vote."
Another voter, who gave his name as Adam, spoke to the BBC about his decision to tick the Leave box and said he had not anticipated the period of uncertainty following the referendum.
He said: "I'm shocked that we voted for Leave, I didn't think that was going to happen. I didn't think my vote was going to matter too much because I thought we were just going to remain."
Hundreds of others have taken to social media complaining of "Bregret" - but many have been met with criticism.
Paul, a gamer, tweeted: "So leave voters have realised what they done and regret voting leave and would vote remain given another chance? Bit late now."
