Updated as the petition now has 600,000 signatures
A petition that was started recently has just reached 500,000 signatures. The petition says “Call an immediate general election to end the chaos of the current government”. The text calls for the government to allow the people to decide what happens next, citing the range of problems that the UK faces. These include lack of leadership, fuel, energy, climate crises, the war in Ukraine, our relationship with Europe and the threat of Scotland leaving the UK.
The government response on 20 September said:
“The UK is a Parliamentary democracy and the Conservative Party remains the majority party. The Prime Minister has pledged to ensure opportunity and prosperity for all people and future generations.”
Why have people signed this petition?
We asked some of the signatories why they were keen to sign this petition to call for a general election.
Here are some of the responses:
“The government is a million miles from the manifesto it was elected on.”
“This government has no mandate for the policies it is trying to implement. Liz Truss was elected by some 60,000 Conservative members but her agenda is far removed from her party’s 2019 general election manifesto. She should seek a new mandate from the country if she wants to go ahead along these lines.”
“Surely when every major opinion poll shows an overwhelming majority for the opposition, democracy must be allowed to run its course. Without a general election the unelected UK government will stumble on from crisis to crisis like a headless chicken.”
“A general election is the will of the people.”
“Because the current government does not represent most people’s views and they don’t seem to understand economics or politics”
“Truss is so bad for the UK [because of the fiscal event] and polling shows that UK needs to have a new voice before the pound crashes.”
“We need to take back control.”
Poll: should there be a general election?
Today, Good Morning Britain ran a poll on Twitter asking “Should there be a general election?” At the time of writing (with three hours left to run) it has had over 70k responses, with 93% saying “Yes”.
As Anna Soubry said on the programme earlier, “People are angry!”
Polling
Labour is currently riding high in the polls; last week saw a yougov poll showing as much as a 33% lead. Today, the Poll of Polls, which takes into account a range of polls, is showing an average of a 22% lead.
Nadine Dorries
And even Nadine Dorries is calling for an election. She tweeted:
If Liz wants a whole new mandate, she must take to the country.”
And then
You can see the full text of the petition, sign it and read the full government response here.
