Cambridgeshire residents have helped to crash the UK government petitions website today, as a surge of people signed a petition calling for Article 50 to be revoked.

At the time of publication, 21,185 Cambridgeshire residents had signed the petition - entitled Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU.

Residents in Cambridge were the most enthusiastic in the county about signing - some 6,907 at 6pm.

You can see where and how many people have signed the petition on the heat map.

Figures show that roughly 74 per cent of people in Cambridge voted to remain in the EU referendum.

The petition - created on the 14th of February - began gaining signatures on Wednesday evening after Theresa May’s speech criticising MPs for not backing her Brexit deal.

Theresa May addresses the nation yesterday (March 20) after asking the European Union for a Brexit extension

The website has been intermittently crashing due to a high volume of traffic. It calls on the government to revoke Article 50, and 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.”

Some 6907 people had signed it in Cambridge, 4708 in South Cambridgeshire, and 4052 in South East Cambridgeshire.

While in Huntingdon 2239 had signed, in North West Cambridgeshire 1812 had signed, in North East 1080 have signed and in Peterborough 1087 had signed.

The average number of votes per UK constituency was 1,150 at the time of writing - and the more pro-EU an area voted in 2016, the more signatures it tended to have.

At the time of writing, around a fifth of the total signatures were from people based in London.

Although the petition has little formal power, it may grab the attention of MPs.

Cambridgeshire is one of the highest places for signatures

Alan Wager, research associate at thinktank The UK in a Changing Europe, said: “What these results show is there is that voters remain unimpressed with the Brexit process so far.

“Where the petition has been signed, and the fact that places that voted Remain are most strongly represented, is no great shock.

“Equally, its value is in grabbing the attention of MPs and Westminster - the petition means they have to debate it, but doesn't compel Mrs May to take any action, no matter how many people sign it.

“But the fact revocation remains the only step that the UK can itself make unilaterally and independently - if the government's deal and no deal are ruled out - means that revocation could soon be entering the mainstream of British politics.

“As a result, this petition could be an important political symbol. The fact many of the constituencies that have a disproportionate number of signatures are bellwether electoral seats should give both Labour and the Conservatives pause for thought.”