Parliamentarians to discuss petition advocating for new general election

Members of Parliament are set to discuss an online petition that advocates for a repeat of the general election held in July, following its accumulation of more than 2.8 million signatures. This discussion is slated for 6 January in Westminster Hall, a secondary forum designated for the consideration of such petitions. This petition has achieved the status of the third most popular e-petition since 2010, significantly exceeding the 100,000 signatures necessary to trigger a parliamentary debate. While it will not result in a new election, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch utilized it to challenge Sir Keir Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions. Badenoch asserted that the petition demonstrated “two million people asking him to go” following Labour’s initial Budget since 2010, amidst a disagreement between the two leaders regarding the government’s tax increases. Sir Keir dismissed her criticism, stating that the July election, in which Labour secured 411 Commons seats and 9.7 million votes, constituted a “massive petition” on its own. Initiated by a publican from the West Midlands who cast a Conservative vote in July’s general election, the petition alleges that Labour has failed to uphold its pre-election commitments. It was established last week and has subsequently received promotion from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and technology billionaire Elon Musk. The Petitions Committee, established in 2015 for the purpose of examining petitions submitted via Parliament’s website, has verified that the debate will occur on Monday, 6 January. Lib Dem MP Jamie Stone, who serves as the committee’s chair, will commence the debate, and a government minister is expected to provide a response. No vote will take place following the conclusion of the debate; however, the government is obligated to provide a written response due to the petition having garnered more than 10,000 signatures. The petition provided Badenoch with an opportunity to criticize the government during Prime Minister’s Questions, marking only her third confrontation with Sir Keir since assuming the role of Tory leader earlier this month. She further stated that increases to employers’ National Insurance (NI) in the previous month’s Budget had led to warnings from businesses that job reductions would be necessary. This tax hike was absent from Labour’s election manifesto, yet ministers contend its necessity to address a “black hole” in public finances attributed to the preceding government and to generate funds for public services. “There’s a petition out there, two million people asking him to go,” she informed MPs. “He’s the one who doesn’t know how things work. It is not government that creates growth, it is business,” she added. The Prime Minister responded: “She talks about a petition, we had a massive petition on the 4th of July in this country. “We spent years taking our party from a party of protest to a party of government, they are hurtling in the opposite direction.”” Badenoch additionally urged the Prime Minister to reiterate a commitment made by Chancellor Rachel Reeves to refrain from implementing further tax or borrowing increases subsequent to the Budget. Sir Keir refused to reaffirm the promise, stating he was “not going to write the next five years of Budgets”. Furthermore, he accused Badenoch of proposing “unfunded commitments” by endorsing additional expenditure, without specifying whether she would revoke the NI increase if her party were in power. The Conservatives, he informed MPs, possessed “nothing to offer except complaints”. Individuals who sign online petitions on Parliament’s website are required to check a box confirming their status as a British citizen or UK resident, and to supply a postcode. The e-petition with the highest number of signatories to date emerged in 2019, advocating for the cancellation of Brexit and attracting 6.1 million signatures. Three years prior, a demand for a second Brexit referendum collected 4.2 million names. The existing petition system superseded one administered by the Cabinet Office from 2011 to 2015, which itself had replaced a Downing Street website established under New Labour in 2006. Nearly 1.8 million individuals supported a petition on the Downing Street website urging the Blair government to “scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy”. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the material found on external websites. Information regarding our policy on external linking is available.