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Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out calling a general election after a petition calling for another vote was signed by more than two million people.
“I would like there to be another general election,” the petition 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 dismissed calls for an election by saying that it is “not how our system works”.
He said: “Look, I remind myself that very many people didn’t vote Labour at the last election.
“I am not surprised many of them want a re-run.”
The government must respond to all petitions with over 10,000 signatures, and petitions reaching 100,000 signatures are considered before parliament.
The petition comes amid growing backlash over Labour’s budget, which has sparked controversy for hikes to national insurance and extension of inheritance tax to include farms, among other unpopular proposals which aim to fill the spending black hole.
Among the famous faces to have shared the petition are billionaire Trump-ally Elon Musk, who has repeatedly criticised Sir Keir since he came to power, and British actor Michael Caine.
Who wants to call a general election?
The petition was only set up on November 20, but has already received over 2,184,000 signatures at the time of writing.
The majority of signatories to the petition are concentrated in Conservatives or Reform safe seats.
Many of the names in these seats may seem familiar, as vocal critics of the current Labour government. The MPs in constituencies where the petitions have received the most signatures include leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch, former leadership hopeful James Cleverly, and topping the list, Alex Burghart.
The petition is highly popular among constituents of Reform leaders Richard Tice and Nigel Farage, with 9,550 signatures between the two constituencies.
However, over a million signatures have come from constituencies with a Labour MP.
The Labour MP representing the most constituents calling for a general election is Kevin McKenna, with 4,609 constituents signing the petition.
Mr McKenna won his constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey by just 355 votes in July.
The constituency had a low voter turnout of just 51.9 per cent and was historically Conservative.
It is likely that his narrow win made many residents unhappy in an area with high Tory support; but even so, it is unclear whether those signing the petition would be able to oust Mr McKenna in another election.
No Labour seat has seen more than 6 per cent of constituents sign the petition.
However, this discontent may still cause some concern for Labour MPs with small majorities. In the Derbyshire Dales, Labour MP John Whitby won by 350 votes, and over 4,426 of his constituents have signed the petition to call an election. MPs in Ribble Valley, Middlesborough South, and Redditch face a similar dilemma.
A high number of constituents in South Norfolk have also signed the petition in South Norfolk, where Terry Jermy is the Labour MP.
Mr Jermy has faced recent pressure following the farmers protests, as his constituency is being eyed by the Tories and has 408 farm holdings.
Even some constituents of Labour leaders have signed the petition calling for a new election, with over 3,000 signatures in Deputy PM Angela Rayner’s seat.
Discontentment from abroad
At least 14,276 of the signatures were from people based outside the United Kingdom, according to self-declared locations required in the petition forms.
Thousands of signatures came from the United States, Spain, France and Australia.
The petition has also received hundreds of signatures from Thailand, UAE and Cyprus.
There are even five signatures reported from the Vatican City, where the Pope resides.
Only British citizens and UK residents are allowed to sign this type of petition to be considered by Parliament.
However, the rapid scale of the petition may make it more difficult to verify the identities of the two million-plus signatories. The Independent has reached out to the government to confirm how many of the signatures are verified.
This is not helped by non-citizens such as billionaire Elon Musk promoting the petition, saying on X that “the people of Britain have had enough of a tyrannical police state”.
