More than one in five voters in Greenwich & Woolwich have a signed a petition calling for Article 50 to be revoked and for the UK to remain in the European Union.
The online petition, which was set up at end of February but gained traction after the prime minister criticised MPs for refusing to pass her Brexit deal on Wednesday, passed five million names in total on Sunday afternoon, breaking the record for a petition to parliament. Its creator, retired university lecturer Margaret Georgiadou, has received death threats.
At 1.45pm on Sunday, Greenwich & Woolwich had the 40th highest number of names on the petition, with 16,360 out of 77,190 registered voters adding their backing to the call to scrap Brexit and stay in the union. Local MP Matt Pennycook is Labour’s shadow minister for exiting the EU.
A million people – including Greenwich Council leader Danny Thorpe and deputy David Gardner, and Conservative councillor Matt Clare – marched through central London on Saturday to demand a fresh referendum on May’s deal. Greenwich councillors passed a motion calling for a new vote last year.
Support for the petition is higher in Lewisham Deptford – which includes Brockley and Hither Green – where over 27% of voters have backed the petition. Support is high in Camberwell & Peckham (22%) and Bermondsey and Old Southwark (24%). Backing for the petition is highest of all in Bristol West and Hornsey & Wood Green, which takes in Muswell Hill, Crouch End and part of Highgate, where more than one in three electors have signed up.
More than 23% of voters have signed up in Lewisham West and Penge, while 17% have signed in Lewisham East. In Eltham, where MP Clive Efford has said a new referendum is “almost inevitable”, 11% have signed.
The figures drop sharply towards Bexley – 8% have signed in Old Bexley and Sidcup – represented by cabinet minister James Brokenshire – while 7% have signed in both Erith & Thamesmead and Bexleyheath & Crayford.
In Orpington – held by Jo Johnson, the brother of Leave campaign frontman Boris – 10% of voters have signed, while in Bromley & Chislehurst 14% have signed up, a percentage point fewer than in Beckenham.
Across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, about 10.6% of the 46.8 million people registered to vote in June 2017 have backed the petition. The constituency where the petition is least popular is Walsall North, where just 2% of voters have signed up.
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