Keir Starmer today dismissed demands for a fresh general election despite a Parliamentary petition topping two million signatures.
The PM blamed ‘difficult’ decisions in the Budget for the huge backlash he has been facing as he appeared on ITV‘s This Morning.
He insisted the petition just reminded him that ‘very many people didn’t vote Labour’. ‘I’m not surprised many of them want a rerun,’ he said.
The petition on the Parliament website was posted by pub owner Michael Westwood and complains that Sir Keir has ‘gone back on promises‘.
Although signatories have to say they are UK citizens or residents and provide an email and postcode, there is not thought to be any other verification – risking the chance some of the signatories may actually be based abroad.
Petitions can only trigger a debate in the Westminster Hall chamber.
Polls have been showing that Labour has taken a massive hit from a torrid first four months in power.
An internal impact assessment last week revealed that removing the winter fuel allowance from millions of pensioners could push 100,000 more into poverty.
Big retailers have been sending a message that the £25billion employer NICs raid in the Budget will cost jobs and push up prices.
Meanwhile, ministers have been hit with bad economic news, with the economy struggling and inflation higher than hoped.
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.’
Mr Westwood, who runs a pub, told the Express: ‘Not in my wildest dreams did I think this was going to take off like it has.’
Asked why he thinks the demand for a general election is resonating as much as it has, Mr Westwood said he believes voters feel ‘betrayed’ by Labour.
He explained: ‘The British public feel like they have been betrayed with the promises that were told in the lead to the election and then what has been delivered since – it looks nothing like what was promised.
‘I think people have had enough, people have seen what’s happened over in America as well, and I think that’s had a knock on effect that, actually, if people stand together and vote then we can make a change.
The government is under no obligation to comply with a petition, and they are often not even picked up by MPs to steward a debate in Westminster Hall – although in this case the volume of signatures means one could well be scheduled.
A poll last week found support for Labour has slumped to a new record post-election low.
Sir Keir‘s party is now three points behind the Tories – and just six ahead of Reform – down two on 25 per cent after a week of battles over its plan to make agriculturalists pay a low rate of inheritance tax.
It marks a dramatic fall from its post-election high of 39 per cent which gave it an 11-point lead over the Conservatives.
A second poll shows that almost three-quarters of voters now believe the UK has got worse under Sir Keir’s leadership.
The surveys by More in Common were carried out between November 19 and 21, amid the fallout from Tuesday’s protests in Westminster led by TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson.
Labour MPs have grown increasingly restive about the amount of time the Prime Minister has spent abroad since the election in July.
Last week’s G20 summit in Brazil marked Sir Keir’s 26th day out of the UK since July’s election, with 15 international trips to ten countries.
The source said: ‘Much of it was unavoidable, but not all of it, and he knows it doesn’t look great to be sunning himself in Rio de Janeiro while farmers are protesting and pensioners are freezing’.
Ministers have said that the constant travelling on planes with patchy WiFi was making policy coordination difficult.
