A petition calling for a bank holiday if England wins the World Cup has gathered tens of thousands of signatures.

The appeal on the Parliament website said a bank holiday is needed because if England are victorious then Monday will 'not be pleasant' for fans.

Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate, and as of Tuesday afternoon the petition had more than 140,000 signatures.

'If England win the World Cup, the Monday should be made a bank holiday for 2018. We need this for all those supporting England as the next day will not be pleasant for all fans,' the petition said.

The TUC supports the introduction of a bank holiday, with the general secretary saying that workers in the UK are 'entitled' to it.

Football fan and Arsenal supporter Frances O'Grady said: 'We have fewer bank holidays than most of Europe - only Romanians have less of a break.

'Workers in the UK put in billions of hours of unpaid overtime every year. They should be entitled to a day off if England win the World Cup.

'Allowing fans to celebrate is not going to crash the economy. Come on England!'

It is already known that Jeremy Corbyn wants the whole UK to get a day off if Gareth Southgate's team emulates the heroes of 1966.

Earlier this month, a senior Labour spokesman said: 'We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but I think it is the case that Jeremy believes that if England were to win the World Cup there should be a public bank holiday in celebration.'

The spokesman said any bank holiday would have to come soon after the match and would cover the whole of the UK, and not just England.

'The World Cup is a very special international competition,' he said.

'It's something that brings people together on a very large scale and we need recognition of that and recognition of the importance of football in the country.'