A petition demanding Sir Keir Starmer hold an “immediate general election” has reached an embarrassing milestone for the Prime Minister today (Wednesday) as it hit the threshold for triggering a debate by MPs. The appeal calls for signatories who agree with the sentiment “we want an immediate general election to be held. We think the majority need and want change”.
At the time of writing it has hit more than 137,000 votes, soaring over the 100,000 needed for Parliament to consider it worthy of a debate by MPs. The number of people adding their names to petition has more than doubled in 24 hours and the numbers are still rising. It’s the second time an appeal calling for a rerun of last year’s July 4 general election has hit the target needed on the official Parliament petitions page to trigger a debate. In January, MPs discussed another submission demanding the same thing after it reached 2.8 million signatures.
This petition is not the only appeal which has recently gained huge traction online, another one demanding an end to asylum seekers being able to claim benefits reached more than 420,000 votes.
The first petition on the elections did not trigger another national election but saw Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch taunting the PM during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons. She said it showed “two million people asking him to go”.
Sir Keir responded by saying the election result on July 4 last year as a “massive petition” in itself.
At the general election last year Labour won 412 seats, compared to 121 for the Tories. But Sir Keir’s party only managed to secure 33.7% of the vote share, only marginally more than the 32.2% acheived by Jeremy Corbyn in his disastrous 2019 election campaign and far less than the 45% achieved by Tony Blair for his Labour victory in 1997.
Labour have also faced increasing pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party which won an unprecedented 14.3% of the vote share last year, gaining six MPs in the Commons.
The number has since risen to seven after a by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in May, which was triggered after Labour MP Mike Amesbury was filmed punching a man in his constituency.