A petition calling for an “immediate” general election to be held has reached more than 137,000 votes as it soared past the 100,000 needed for Parliament to conside r it worthy of a debate by MPs
It’s been a rough time for the PM(Image: WPA Pool, Getty Images)
A petition demanding Sir Keir Starmer call an “immediate general election” has reached a humiliating landmark for the Prime Minister after surpassing the threshold required to prompt parliamentary debate.
The appeal urges supporters who back the view “we want an immediate general election to be held. We think the majority need and want change” to add their signatures. At the time of writing, it has garnered over 137,000 signatures, smashing through the 100,000 barrier required for Parliament to deem it worthy of MPs’ consideration.
The tally of individuals backing the petition has more than doubled within 24 hours, with numbers continuing to climb.
Keir Starmer has been under pressure over a number of high-profile issues, such as immigration(Image: PA )
This marks the second occasion an appeal demanding a fresh run of last year’s July 4 general election has reached the benchmark on Parliament’s official petitions website to secure a debate, reports the Express.
Back in January, MPs deliberated over another similar submission after it amassed 2.8 million signatures.
This particular petition isn’t the sole appeal to have recently gained massive momentum online – another demanding asylum seekers be stripped of benefit entitlements has attracted over 420,000 signatures.
The initial election petition failed to spark another national poll but provided ammunition for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch to mock the PM during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons.
She declared it demonstrated “two million people asking him to go”.
Sir Keir hit back by describing the July 4 election result last year as a “massive petition” in its own right. In the previous year’s general election, Labour secured 412 seats, a stark contrast to the Tories’ 121.
However, Sir Keir’s party only managed to garner 33.7% of the vote share, barely more than the 32.2% achieved by Jeremy Corbyn in his calamitous 2019 election campaign and significantly less than the 45% Tony Blair attained for his Labour victory in 1997.
Labour has also been under mounting pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which won an unprecedented 14.3% of the vote share last year, resulting in six MPs in the Commons.
This number has since increased to seven following a by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in May, triggered after Labour MP Mike Amesbury was caught on camera punching a man in his constituency.
