Tory councillor accused of 'Orwellian censorship' for petition to make post-Brexit support for the EU 'treason'

Conservative councillor Christian Holliday is asking people to sign a petition to make it illegal for people "to imagine, devise, promote, work, or encourage others, to support UK becoming a member of the European Union."

In other words, he wants people to be charged with treason for supporting the bloc - which will have 27 member states once the UK leaves - after Brexit happens:

The petition was tweeted out yesterday and has so far only got 75 signatures as of 9 a.m. BST on Monday.

If the petition gets 10,000 signatures, will have to respond to it. If it gets 100,000 signatures, parliament will be forced to consider it for debate in Westminster.

However, judging by the lack of signatures so far, and the response from fellow Tory members, the petition definitely does not represent all councillors - or official party policy.

"One of the traits that makes Britain 'great' is an acceptance and tolerance for different opinions. We've fought two world wars and intervened in many more international conflicts expressly to champion and defend the freedom of all, whatever their views," Conservative councillor Mario Creatura told Business Insider.

"For Cllr Holliday to want to lock up people for disagreeing with him smacks of the worst kind of Orwellian censorship. That kind of talk belongs in Assad's Syria or Putin's Russia, not in our United Kingdom. He doesn't speak for me or any other sensible Conservative."

Business Insider has reached out to Holliday for comment and will update this story if he responds.

Britain voted to leave the EU on June 23 and prime minister Theresa May said she is going to trigger Article 50 in early 2017 and thereby kick-off the two year negotiation process of exiting the EU.