A few weeks after the referendum, an
e-petition, originally set up beforehand on 25 May 2016 by a member of the Leave-supporting
English Democrats, demanding it be re-run in the event that a
supermajority was not reached, became the most popular petition on the site, receiving 4,150,262 signatures. On 5 September 2016, the petition received a non-binding debate by
Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Grand Committee Room of Parliament's
Westminster Hall but its proposal was rejected. The Liberal Democrats and Green Party went into the
2017 general election campaigning in favour of a second referendum, and a minority of pro-EU rebels from Labour and the Conservatives also spoke in favour of it. These allied in April 2018 into the
People's Vote campaign group. After several cabinet ministers resigned in protest at the
Chequers statement setting out the Government's position in the Brexit negotiations, Conservative MP
Justine Greening proposed a three-way referendum, using the
supplementary vote system in an attempt to avoid vote splitting. The leader of the
Trades Union Congress, which is closely allied with Labour, said at its 2018 conference that it would declare in favour of a second referendum if the government failed to get "the deal that working people need". On 25 September 2018, delegates at the
Labour Party Conference voted in favour of a motion that if Labour did not support
Theresa May's deal, and if subsequent attempts to call
another general election failed, the party should explore all options, including a second referendum. In early December 2018, the
Financial Times reported that Leave groups had also started preparing for another referendum. The Labour leadership did not make any commitments to a referendum in January 2019. On 18 February 2019, seven pro-EU MPs resigned from the Labour Party to form
The Independent Group (TIG). Over the following days, another Labour MP and three Conservative Party MPs joined them. All eleven supported a referendum. The following week, the Labour Party announced that it would put forward its own second referendum amendment if its attempts to safeguard workers' rights,
Single market access and
Customs Union membership failed. In September 2019, the Labour Party adopted the position of holding a public vote on whether to leave or remain regardless of which party negotiated the withdrawal agreement. On 27 March and 1 April 2019, a series of
indicative votes was held, both times including a referendum on the withdrawal agreement among the proposals. All proposals failed, with those for such a referendum receiving in the first round 268 Ayes, 295 Noes and 71 abstentions (a majority of 27) and in the second round 280 Ayes, 292 Noes and 62 abstentions (a majority of 12). In both rounds, it was the proposal second-closest to receiving an affirmative majority. ==Opinion polling==