UK petition for 2nd EU referendum signed by 3 million

LONDON (AA) – A petition calling on government to hold a second EU referendum, after Thursday's Brexit vote, has been signed by more than 3 million people in the U.K. on Sunday.

“We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based a turnout less than 75% there should be another referendum,” the petition argues.

The petition, which was submitted by - according to his Facebook account - a Brexit supporter, William Oliver Healey, took a different turn after the referendum results were declared. Healey originally created the petition in support of Brexit voters in case Vote Remain won the referendum.

A student and an activist from De Montfort University, Healey said on his Facebook page that his strategy was “wrongly hijacked by the remain campaign.”

U.K. Prime David Cameron has ruled out the chance to hold a second referendum many times before the vote.

“I am absolutely clear a referendum is a referendum, it’s a once in a generation, once in a lifetime opportunity and the result determines the outcome,” he stated speaking at the World Economic Forum in May. “You can’t have neverendums, you have referendums.”

The British government responds all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures and British Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate. All petitions run for six months on the government’s website.

On Saturday, Labour MP David Lammy also called on parliament to vote against the referendum decision to leave the EU.

Lammy has urged lawmakers to “wake up” in a twitter statement on Saturday and said that referendum was “non-binding".

"We can stop this madness and bring this nightmare to an end through a vote in Parliament,” Lammy tweeted.

Britain held the EU referendum on Thursday to decide on the country’s future relationship with the EU. The country voted by 52 percent against 48 percent to end its 43-year membership with the bloc.