A small business owner started a petition calling for a new general election as he says British voters feel they have been “betrayed” by Labour’s broken promises in the lead up to the election.
The petition has now reached more than 2 million signatures within days which accuses Labour of going “back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election.”
The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has now broken silence over the petition saying he is not surprised as many did not vote for Labour.
Starmer appeared on ITV’s This Morning and was squirming when he was asked about the petition.
The Prime Minister said, “Look, I remind myself that very many people didn’t vote Labour at the last election.
“I’m not surprised that many of them want a rerun. That isn’t how our system works.
“There will be plenty of people who didn’t want us in in the first place.
“So, what my focus is on is the decisions that I have to make every day.”
CEO of Electoral Calculus Martin Baxter told GB News Labour’s messaging has “not been great,” since they won the election and the Prime Minister so far is “not going down well with the public.”
Baxter said, “He’s not used his initial honeymoon period with the voters – when you have the big majority and the mandate, he should kind of explain who he is politically and what he wants to accomplish.
“We’ve had a lot of negative comments about how bad the country is, and then the Budget was on the whole bad news for many people, who are paying more taxes. So the messaging I think has not been great.”
Baxter continued, “My own take is that perhaps the public voted partly to kick the Conservatives out, but maybe also thinking that Keir Starmer was going to be Tony Blair mark two.
“They thought it was going to be another edition of New Labour, but he has not governed as New Labour, the noises have been more pro-union, student union politics kind of debating style, plus increased taxes and increased public spending.
“It’s a bit more old Labour, going back to people like Jim Callaghan in the 70s. And it is so far not going down well with the public.”
Michael Westwood who started the petition told the Express, “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.”
He added, “Not in my wildest dreams did I think this was going to take off like it has.”
Westwood’s 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.”
