On the morning of June 24, the country awoke to a divided nation and as news presenters flailed around in front of elaborately animated maps of yellow and blue, the political boundaries were clear.

Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, faced the cameras and her message couldn't be clearer, her party would not let England drag Scotland out of the EU, but further south there was another community who were feeling hard done by.

London, with a population 39 percent bigger than Scotland, found itself cut off; a pro-European city, surrounded by Brexiters. Soon a question started being uttered that would have seemed unthinkable 24 hours before; if Scotland can have independence, why not London?

It is a campaign that took many by surprise, and no-one more so than its newfound, and unlikely, leader James O'Malley.

Mr O'Malley started a flippant petition on the Friday morning. By the weekend he was the head of a separatist movement.

The petition, which was started as 'a bit of joke', had soon amassed 170,000 signatures.

Mr O'Malley said: "I started it at 5am on the Brexit morning, literally as a frustrated cry, thinking maybe some people on twitter might sign it as a bit of a joke, but since then people have taken it more seriously than I have.

"When I started the petition I put about as much into my campaign as those in the Leave campaign did for there's- it just seemed like a fun idea.

"I haven't had the bank of England sign off on it, the IFS haven't done the maths to figure if it would work. Before I really offer my support for London Independence I'd want the experts to sign off on it."

He added: "I don't want to become the Micheal Gove of this campaign."

Although Mr O'Malley has hesitations about the idea, it has attracted some support from the political sphere.

One is Lord Spencer Livermore, former director of strategy to the then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Lord Livermore said: "London is a vibrant, exciting, successful, confident, multicultural, and outward-looking city, but is often resented for that success by much of the rest of the country.

"Equally, too little of the huge income generated in London is available to spend on Londoners - to deal with our own inequalities, which in turn has been fostering disquiet within London with the rest of the country.

"I have always seen London to have the potential to be a nation in its own right, like England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

"Indeed, it is a world city - the greatest city on earth. If the UK does leave the EU, it will do huge damage to London's success and we should move ahead and make a reality of that nationhood."

Although the former chief strategy adviser to the chancellor of the exchequer accepts that it is difficult to "see a UK-wide mainstream party championing" London independence he believes a movement within the capital could make a strong case for a city-state.

Lord Livermore said: "An independent London would have the 11th largest GDP in the EU and the 12th largest population.

"It would be the 23rd largest economy in the world. So it is clearly very viable as an independent state.

"Singapore operates very successfully as a city-state, as arguably did Hong Kong, and perhaps Dubai. So there are plenty of precedents and different constitutional models."

He added: "London has existing democratic structures - GLA, Mayor - that could be built on and which also help to make it viable as a city-state."

Despite the spike in popularity "Londependence" still has a long was to go- a poll by YouGov in July said the campaign was supported by just 11 per cent of London residents.

Among the sceptics is London's presumptive president, Major Sadiq Khan.

Mr Khan said he wasn't "seriously talking about independence" but that the campaign made it "clear that the capital needs a stronger voice".

“London’s population is the same size as Wales and Scotland combined, but we have far less control over how the city is run. We urgently need more devolution so we have greater control over the things we need to improve our city."

As Mr Malloy puts it "I can't imagine us putting border controls on the M47, or printing bank notes with Michael Kane and Barbara Winsor on them” but the calls for London independence are highlighting the increasingly fractured relationship the capital now has with the rest of the county.

To many, the idea might sound absurd but if this referendum is a guide, anything can happen.