The petition, which was set up by Leave voter William Oliver Healey in May but has now been seized upon by distraught Remain supporters, is being investigated for "fraudulent signatures".

Helen Jones, who chairs the cross-party petitions committee, said in a statement on Twitter that she is taking allegations of fraud "very seriously" and confirmed that her office would be investigating.

The full statement reads: "We take fraud in the petitions system very seriously, because it undermines the process of parliamentary democracy. The Government Digital Service are taking action to investigate and, where necessary, remove fraudulent signatures. People adding fraudulent signatures to this petition should know that they undermine the cause they pretend to support.

"It is clear that this petition is very important to a substantial number of people. The Petitions Committee will be considering the petition at its meeting next week, and will decide whether or not to schedule a debate on it.

"That doesn't mean that the committee will be deciding whether or not it agrees with the petition – just whether or not it should be debated. Any debate would allow a range of views to be expressed."

Any petition that passes 100,000 signatures is automatically scheduled for debate in the House of Commons.

"The committee meets on Tuesday afternoons and will next meet on Tuesday 28 June, where they will consider the petition 'EU Referendum Rules triggering a 2nd EU Referendum' as it has now passed the 100,000 threshold," a House of Commons spokesperson told Metro.