Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out an early general election after a petition calling for a second vote reached two million signatures.

The petition was launched over the weekend and says there should be another vote, just four months after Labour won a landslide, because they have “gone back on their promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election”.

By Monday mid-morning, it had reached two million signatures and was climbing fast.

But the prime minister said he would not be calling another election.

However, he said he was “not surprised” those who did not want to support Labour wanted a second vote.

Petitions on the government website are considered for debate by MPs after 10,000 signatures. Petitions get a government response after the tally reaches 100,000.

Over the weekend, MPs considered to be from the right of the Tories or from Reform UK, were urging people on social media to sign the petition.

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice and Conservative shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith were among those sharing the petition.

Donald Trump aide Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, reposted a link to a post which said it had got 200,000 signatures in a few hours. He wrote: “Wow.”

Musk has previously spoken out against Sir Keir Starmer, calling him “two-tier Keir” over accusations police were treating communities according to their racial background in different ways.

  • emax_gomax@lemmy.world
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    23 minutes ago

    It is genuinely disturbing how much far right BS is being pushed onto people on social media. Happily not as much here but my tiktok is covered with the farmers protest and how the government is failing us when they’ve been in charge for less than a year and the last party has literally brought the UK to thw breaking point. Absolutely ridiculous.

  • Lad@reddthat.com
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    2 hours ago

    Have we forgotten the 14 years of abject misery under Tory government already? People have short memories.

  • Chris
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    3 hours ago

    gone back on their promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election

    Maybe we should have another election after every election?

    Maybe we should have another EU referendum, as the winning side definitely broke their promises.

    Maybe we should just vote again on stuff simply because we don’t like the result.

    Maybe we should wait five years and then have another general election to decide if they should stay in power or not.

        • hexbee [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          2 hours ago

          Well you definitely shouldn’t have any faith in the British “democracy” because it’s not one. Even pretending that it is one is difficult when the “House of Lords” is an institution that exists.

          But if we actually tried doing democracy properly maybe it would be good. We actually haven’t tried it yet. The ghouls in charge just use that word because of course they would. It’s easy to stay in power as long as enough people believe the lie.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝OPA
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    3 hours ago

    Looks like someone has got a taste for electoral interference.

    You can tell how Xitter has become a silo of shithousery, because this is the first time I’ve heard of this.

    • Lad@reddthat.com
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      2 hours ago

      Musk is a weapons grade dickhead. Anyone half decent should get off his platform immediately.