UK Petition Calling for 2nd EU Referendum Passes 4Mln Signatures

As of Wednesday, more than four million people have signed an online UK petition calling for a second referendum on the country's membership in the European Union.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, the Petitions Committee of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament deferred from making a decision regarding the petition until final verification of all signatures.

The petition was launched on the UK Parliament website almost immediately after the EU membership referendum results had been announced on Friday. All petitions that receive over 100,000 signatures must be considered by the UK Parliament.

The petition calls on the British government to hold another EU membership referendum, using the rule under which it is possible to put the motion to the public again if neither of the camps obtains over 60 percent of the vote and the turnout is below 75 percent.

Although the Petitions Committee may choose to schedule a debate on this petition in due course, it only has the power to schedule debates in the Westminster Hall – the second debating chamber of the House of Commons. Debates in the Westminster Hall do not have the power to change the law, and could not trigger a second referendum. The Petitions Committee will next meet on July 12.

On Thursday, the United Kingdom held a referendum to determine whether or not the country should leave the European Union. According to the final results, 51.9 percent of voters, or 17.4 million people, decided to support Brexit, while about 16.1 million opposed it.