Brexit: Man behind petition for second EU referendum is LEAVE campaigner from Telford

The petition, set up by William Oliver Healey, of Wellington, has now attracted more than 3 million signatures.

Mr Healey set up the online petition over a month ago, when he expected most people to vote for Britain to stay in the European Union.

The petition states: "We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the Remain or Leave vote is less than 60 per cent based on a turnout less than 75 per cent there should be another referendum."

Now he is accusing Remain campaigners of hijacking it.

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In a statement posted on Facebook Mr Healey said:

His full statement reads:

"This petition was created at a time (over a month ago) when it was looking unlikely that 'leave' were going to win, with the intention of making it harder for 'remain' to further shackle us to the EU. Due to the result, the petition has been hijacked by the remain campaign. Admittedly, my actions were premature however, my intentions were as stated above. There was no guarantee of a leave victory at that time!!! Having said that, if it had not been mine, it would have been orchestrated by someone on the remain campaign.

"However, since I am associated with the petition and before the press further associate me with it I felt the need to better clarify my position on the issue even if it looks bad.

"I am it's creator, nothing more. The logistical probability of getting a turnout to be a minimum of 75 per cent and of that, 60 per cent of the vote must be one or the other (leave or remain) is in my opinion next to impossible without a compulsory element to the voting system.

"I have been opposed to the bureaucratic and undemocratic nature of the European Union as an institution privately for many years and for all of my political career. I have openly and actively lent my support to both Vote Leave and Grassroots Out campaigns - why would I do this if I wanted to remain in the EU? I am genuinely appalled by the behaviour of some of the remain campaign, how they are conducting themselves post-referendum not just with this petition but generally.

"The referendum was fairly funded, democratically endorsed, every vote was weighted equally and I believe this was a true reflection of the mood of the country. To my fellow leavers, now doubting their decision please keep the faith, we will be fine just stick with it. I believe what we need to do now for the good of the country, is get behind the will of the British people, unite, issue Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon and move forward, with the process of leaving the European Union."

Last week's referendum saw 17.4 million or 51.9 per cent votes cast to leave the EU, compared with 16.1 million or 48.1 for remaining, with a voter turnout of 72.2 per cent.

Just over a month ago Ukip leader Nigel Farage said he would fight for a second EU referendum if the Remain campaign won by a narrow margin.

He said a small defeat for his Leave camp would be "unfinished business" and predicted pressure would grow for a re-run of the ballot.

Mr Farage told The Mirror: "In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way. If the remain campaign win two-thirds to one-third that ends it."

Meanwhile, it emerged today that nearly 80,000 names have been struck off Mr Healey's petition after they were found to be fraudulent.

The House of Commons Petition Committee said it had removed about 77,000 signatures which were added "fraudulently" and it would monitor for suspicious activity.

The petition prompted scientist and broadcaster Professor Brian Cox to tweet:

Queen guitarist Brian May added:

Radiohead's Thom York tweeted a link to the petition and added:

The parliamentary petitions system is overseen by the Petitions Committee, who consider whether petitions that receive more than 100,000 signatures should be raised in the house. The committee is due to sit again on Tuesday.

A map of the signatures indicated that most activity was in England's major cities. The highest number of signatories came from London, where most boroughs backed Remain in the referendum.