AFP, LONDON: The British government on Saturday formally rejected a petition signed by more than 4.125 million people calling for a second referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.
“We the undersigned call upon HM (Her Majesty’s) government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60 percent based a turnout less than 75 percent there should be another referendum,” the petition said.
On June 23, on a 72 percent turnout, 52 percent (17.4 million people) voted in favour of Britain leaving the European Union.
When a petition on parliament’s website tops 100,000 signatures, the Petitions Committee considers it for a parliamentary debate.
More than 77,000 fraudulent signatures were removed from the EU referendum petition.