Sir Keir Starmer has been left bracing for a humiliating Westminster Hall debate after more than 1.5 million people signed a petition to hold yet another General Election.
Despite going to the polls five times in the last 10 years, hundreds of thousands of voters want another election after a petition was launched accusing the Prime Minister of going back on his manifesto commitments.
Labour has come under fire for a series of measures introduced since its landslide victory on July 4, including axing Winter Fuel Payments and putting forward a £40billion tax-hiking Budget.
The number of signatures now means that MPs will likely get the opportunity to debate holding yet another General Election.
The threshold for MPs to debate the petition – 100,000 signatures – was passed within just a matter of hours, with more than 120,000 signing up in the last 60-minutes alone.
Set up by Michael Westwood, the petition reads: “I would like there to be another General Election.
“I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election.”
On holding petition debates, the Government website says: “Petitions which reach 100,000 signatures are almost always debated.
“But we may decide not to put a petition forward for debate if the issue has already been debated recently or there’s a debate scheduled for the near future.
“If that’s the case, we’ll tell you how you can find out more about parliamentary debates on the issue raised by your petition.
“MPs might consider your petition for a debate before it reaches 100,000 signatures.”
However, there is virtually no chance the petition will result in a general election.
Labour returned 411 MPs on July 4, giving Starmer an enormous super-majority.
However, the remaining rump of 121 Tory MPs and five Reform UK MPs will undoubtedly look to use the debate as an opportunity to slam Starmer with the 2025 Local Elections in the forefront of strategists’ minds.
Despite making no major difference to Starmer’s iron grip on power, the petition reflects the Prime Minister’s plummeting support in the opinion polls.
A recent More in Common survey put Labour’s support down by nine-points compared to July 4 on 25 per cent.
Kemi Badenoch’s Tories opened up a narrow three-point lead, with 28 per cent of voters now supporting the Conservative Party.
Reform UK also continues to make inroads compared to July 4 on 19 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats on 13 per cent and Green Party on eight per cent.
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/general-election-petition-keir-starmer-parliament