The petition to have a second Brexit referendum was created online before the result on Friday.

The petition, which has now topped three million supporters, was set up by a leave campaigner a month ago when he thought his side would lose.

The UK voted to leave the EU by 51.9 to 48.1% in a national referendum.

Oliver Healey has disclosed that because there was "no guarantee of a leave victory at that time" he set up the petition "with the intention of making it harder for 'remain' to further shackle us to the EU".

In a Facebook post, the English Democrats member said he felt it was time to "clarify my position on the issue even if it looks bad" and stressed that the remain side had "hijacked" the petition on the government website.

He said "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."