Brexit: Petition for 2nd EU referendum gets 1 million signatures in 24 hours

More than one million Britons have signed a petition seeking a re-do of the historic European Union referendum vote that put the United Kingdom on the path to leaving the 28-member union.

Over 1.2 million people had signed the parliamentary petition by 12:20 p.m. local time Saturday -- 120 times more signatures than needed to trigger a response from the government. Demand was so high that the petition temporarily downed the UK Government and Parliament website, according to The Guardian.

Britons decided Thursday in a narrow 52-48 vote against staying in the European Union amid fears of immigration and frustration with politicians in Brussels, where the EU is based.

Once a petition reaches 100,000 signatures, it becomes eligible for a debate in Parliament. The 11-member Petitions Committee will ultimately decide whether to debate the issue. The group is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to The Guardian.

Thursday's vote means a majority of Britons favor triggering Article 50 of the 2009 Lisbon Treaty, which would start negotiations for the UK to leave the EU. The process is expected to take at least two years once it's started.

The aftermath of the vote has been wide-ranging. Prime Minister David Cameron announced he would step down before October and said he plans to leave it to his successor to start the process of leaving the EU. Financial markets tumbled and the pound hit its lowest levels in comparison to the dollar since the 1980s.

There have been calls for a second Scottish vote on independence, despite the fact that a similar referendum failed in 2014, considering that voters in Scotland were overwhelmingly in favor of staying in the EU.

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness on Friday called for a referendum on reunifying Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.

Cox Media Group