An official petition, calling on Britain to offer the Republic of Ireland "full UK membership", is gaining signatures in the UK.

As of Tuesday, it has received over 2,560 signatures.

Created by Scott Packer, it states: "The RoI left our union in 1922 after 121 years of being part of the family.

"We should now ask them to reconsider their position within both the UK & EU as a way of solving the current impasse over the Irish border issue that is holding up the withdrawal agreement.

"Britain & Ireland stronger together", it adds.

A heat map shows the majority of signatures have come from Northern Ireland.

Image: © Crown copyright

A handful of others have come from England, Wales and Scotland - with a concentration in London.

Petitions require a British government response if they hit 10,000 signatures.

While at 100,000 signatures, a petition is considered for debate in the British parliament.

Figures show 266 petitions have received a response from the UK government in this way - while 49 were debated in the House of Commons.

The petition has a deadline set for July 9th.

Only British citizens or UK residents can sign it.