General Election Petition
A petition launched on the 20th of November calling for a new general election has gained mass popularity extremely quickly in the United Kingdom. With over 2.7 million signatures, it has become the 3rd most signed e-petition since 2010, and has comfortably surpassed the 100,000 signatures it needs in order for a debate in Parliament to be called. The set date for this debate has recently been declared as the 6th of January.
It is very clear that Labour has faced a considerable amount of criticism in the few months they have been in government; from the Winter Fuel Payment to the Farmer’s Inheritance Tax, these controversies fueled the motivation for the creation of this petition and have left many disappointed with the Labour government so far, including the creator of this petition, Michael Westwood. As a Conservative voter, Westwood has expressed his belief that the current Labour government ‘has gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election’. The data from the map of this petition shows that most of the signatories are from Conservative and Reform safe seats and therefore most were hoping, like Micheal Westwood, for another Conservative or further right-wing government rather than the more centre-left government Labour presents themselves to be. This suggests that Labour’s substantial majority in Parliament is perhaps not reflected in the public. However, there has also been many claims that at least 14,000 signatures aren’t genuine, as they have come from countries abroad like the US, Spain and Australia - only UK citizens are allowed to sign this kind of petition for it to be considered for debate in Parliament.
Some members of the Labour party have already addressed the petition: Jess Phillips (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office) has stated ‘it’s early days’ and ‘there is a huge amount of mess to clear up’, referring to the state the Tories left the country in when Labour came to power. Other Labour ministers have justified Labour’s controversial actions and have said they have had to make ‘tough choices’ to rectify the ‘damage’ inflicted by the previous Conservative government.
The Labour government have only been in power for 5 months, and although this petition expresses the sheer amount of people’s discontent with the newly elected Keir Starmer, their hope has been suppressed by the Prime Minister stating ‘that isn’t how the country works’, clearly dismissing the idea of a general election. So, the question remains- will the UK have a new Prime Minister?’. The answer is that it is unlikely. There will be a debate in Parliament on this topic, but this e-petition does not hold any real power to force Parliament to act, and a general election will most likely not take place.
Sources used:
What we know about the viral petition calling for a general election