Thousands of residents across the Braintree district have signed a petition calling for Brexit to be scrapped.

An online petition has been launched on the parliament petition website calling for Article 50 to be revoked and for the UK to stay in the European Union.

Petitions need 100,000 signatures to trigger a debate in Parliament.

The petition has gone viral and by Monday already had more than five million signatures.

It says: “The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is ‘the will of the people’.

“We need to put a stop to this claim by proving the strength of public support now, for remaining in the EU.

“A People’s Vote may not happen – so vote now.”

A breakdown of the signatures shows 5,463 Braintree residents – 5.5 per cent of local constituents – had signed by Monday.

In Witham the figure was 5,537 – just over 6 per cent of constituents.

Just over 5,000 people in Maldon had signed the petition.

Essex Euro MP Alex Mayer (Lab) said the petition, according to the petitions committee, has been growing at the fastest rate ever.

So many people have logged on that the Parliament’s petitions website is said to have crashed several times as a result.

Ms Mayer said: “There is a growing movement to stop the Brexit mess.

“More and more people are telling me they feel the last two-and-a-half years have been a national humiliation.

“But there is still time to pause and think again which is why I’m backing this petition. It is time to put this back to the people.”

Article 50 is the two-year legal countdown to Brexit which was meant to take place tomorrow but has been postponed.

The process is now set to end on Friday, April 12 after EU leaders granted an extension.

The woman behind the petition has said she has had to close her Facebook page due to abuse and has even received death threats.

In a tweet, Margaret Georgiadou said: “I have had three death threats over the phone, my Facebook account has been hacked and had a torrent of abuse on Facebook.”

A rival petition for the pro-Brexit campaign called ‘Leave the EU without a deal in March 2019’ is also on the Parliament petition website.

It had 541,827 signatures by Monday and it will stay open until Wednesday, April 17.

Of those 1,138 are from residents in Braintree, 1,069 from Witham and 1,335 from Maldon.

Mid Essex’s three Conservative MPs – Braintree’s James Cleverly, Witham’s Priti Patel and Maldon’s John Whittingdale – are all pro-Brexit.