100,000 sign petition to declare London independent of the UK

The campaign has caught the imagination of Londoners in their thousands Credit: PA

An online petition calling to declare London independent of the UK and to join the EU has attracted more than 100,000 signatures in a day..

The page on change.org has taken its organiser James O'Malley, a writer from north London using the twitter handle @Psythor, by surprise.

"I had no idea it was going to happen. I thought it would get a couple of hundred signatures," he said.

He was inspired to start the petition as the results of the EU referendum emerged when it became apparent that London's attitude to Europe differed from large parts of England.

The petition carries the words: London is an international city, and we want to remain at the heart of Europe.Let's face it - the rest of the country disagrees. So rather than passive aggressively vote against each other at every election, let's make the divorce official and move in with our friends on the continent.

Conceding that he started it as a bit of a joke Mr O'Malley hopes that it could lead to a positive outcome including having more power devolved to London.