Starmer rules out re-running general election as petition gathers signatures

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out calling another general election, but said he is “not surprised” some people who did not support Labour might want a second poll.

A petition on Parliament’s website calling for another election has now been signed by more than two million people.

“I would like there to be another general election,” it reads.

“I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead-up to the last election.”

Asked about the petition on ITV’s This Morning programme on Monday, Sir Keir said: “Look, I remind myself that very many people didn’t vote Labour at the last election.

“Tough but fair”

“I’m not surprised that many of them want a re-run. That isn’t how our system works.

“There will be plenty of people who didn’t want us in in the first place.

“So, what my focus is on is the decisions that I have to make every day.”

He characterised decisions taken so far by his Government as “tough but fair”.

Sir Keir and his ministers have faced a particularly strong backlash for limiting winter fuel payments to only the poorest pensioners.

Farmers have also protested over changes to inheritance tax which they claim could affect the future of their businesses.

As he marks five months as Prime Minister, Sir Keir acknowledged the job has been difficult, but added: “I wouldn’t swap a single day in opposition for a day in power.

“It’s much better to be in power to do things, rather than the frustration, as I found it, in opposition for all of those long years where we were just able to say what we would do.”

Petition

The petition calling for another general election is open for signatures until May 2025.

While the vast majority of those signing it are from the UK, it has also gained support from other countries.

More than 1,200 people from the US have added their name to it, with similar a number from France doing the same.

American signatories may have been made aware of the petition by Elon Musk, the businessman and ally of President-elect Donald Trump.

He shared the petition on X, the social media site he owns formerly known as Twitter, claiming “the people of Britain have had enough of a tyrannical police state”.

Downing Street sought to avoid being drawn into a war of words with Mr Musk.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman added Sir Keir was “focused on the issues that matter most to the British people”.

Some of the UK constituencies with the highest number of signatories appear to be Tory-held seats.

More than 5,800 people have signed it in Brentwood and Ongar where shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart is MP, while 5,200 have signed it in Tory chief whip Rebecca Harris’s Castle Point constituency.

Other petitions

Although it has garnered media attention and millions of signatures, it is far from the largest petition received through the Parliament website, or the one which has seen the most rapid take-up.

In 2019, some 6.1 million people signed a petition calling for the revocation of Article 50 and for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union, four million of whom did so in 48 hours.

The second most-signed petition gained 4.1 million signatures.

The 2016 petition called for a second referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union following the Brexit vote.

Because the election petition has received 10,000 signatures, ministers will issue a response to it.

MPs may consider it further in a Westminster Hall debate because it has been signed by more than 100,000 people, although this is not guaranteed.

A petition which has successfully made it to debate is one calling for social media companies to ban under 16-year-olds from their platforms, after it received more than 110,00 signatures.

Another calling for the law around school term-time holidays to be relaxed, which received 250,000 signatures, wsa due for debate on Monday afternoon.

Michael Westwood, the man who started the petition, has confirmed he voted Conservative at the summer election.

But he told Talk TV he did not know if this would be the case again, adding: “One thing’s for certain, I wouldn’t be voting Labour.”

Among those sharing the petition online was retired actor Sir Michael Caine, who has been critical of Labour governments in the past.