THOUSANDS of Brighton and Hove residents have called for the Government to stop Brexit.

A petition to revoke Article 50 launched Wednesday had received almost 17,000 votes from people living in the city by 1pm today.

More than 7,000 of the three million-plus total signatures came from Brighton Pavilion alone – the fourth-highest number from any single constituency in the UK.

Meanwhile, the People’s Vote protest in London on Saturday is proving so popular with Brighton residents that the Big Lemon bus company has laid on an extra coach.

Petra Kopp, secretary of Brighton and Hove for EU, said she was expecting an even bigger turnout than the 700,000 who marched in October.

She said: “The Prime Minister’s statement last night showed once again the arrogance and indeed ignorance of this government in the face of the strength of feeling against Brexit.

“May is not on the side of the hundreds of thousands of people who will be marching on Saturday.

“She is not on the side of half the country. She is not on the side of most MPs.

"She is not on the side of future generations.”

Sussex groups Lewes EUnity and Seahaven Staying In will also be taking part in the march in London.

Ms Kopp added: “The groundswell of opposition against Brexit has grown steadily over the past months, not just here in our strongly Remain city.”

“We are perhaps only days away from a momentous decision that will impact us adversely far into the future.”

It comes after Caroline Lucas said she was prepared to vote to stop Brexit yesterday.

The Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion issued a joint statement with opposition MPs supporting a Brexit extension – but still calling for a second referendum.

And if the House of Commons was unable to agree on a public vote, the group said it was prepared to “secure a parliamentary vote on the revocation of Article 50”.

This means that if the vote is successful Brexit would be stopped completely.

The statement read: “The prime minister must not be allowed to bully MPs into a choice between her bad deal and no deal.

“That would make Brexit a choice between disaster and catastrophe, and that would be a failure of truly historic proportions.”

The statement came before Ms Lucas and other opposition members met Theresa May yesterday.

Ms Lucas later criticised the PM’s statement as “sinister” and “dangerous” and branded her “reckless and deluded.”