I’m not surprised some want an election re-run

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “not that surprised” that some people who did not vote Labour in the last election want a “re-run” of the poll.

A petition on Parliament’s website accusing Labour of breaking promises and calling for a new general election has gathered more than two million signatures – the third highest since 2010.

Because the petition has got more than 100,000 signatures, the subject is likely to be debated in Parliament, but would not trigger a new election.

Asked about the petition on ITV’s This Morning, Sir Keir said: “There will be plenty of people who didn’t want us in the first place… my focus is on the decisions that I have to make every day.”

The prime minister argued that he had “inherited a lot of problems” from the previous government and that he had decided to “take the hard decisions first”.

“I’m not surprised, quite frankly, that as we’re doing the tough stuff there are plenty of people who say ‘well I’m impacted, I don’t like it’.

“But we’ve got to make the big calls on the NHS and on schools that are really important for the here and now and for the future.”

British citizens and UK residents can set up a petition on the UK government or Parliament website.

Petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures will get a response from the government and ones that gather over 100,000 names will be considered for a debate in Parliament.

In 2019, a petition calling for Brexit to be cancelled received 6.1 million signatures. Four years later a call for a second Brexit referendum garnered 4.2 million names.

This petition urging the government to hold a new general election was set up last week and has been promoted by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

In order to sign a petition, you are asked to tick a box confirming you are a British citizen or UK resident and provide a postcode.

The 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.”

It comes five months after Labour won a landslide victory in the July general election, securing 9.7 million votes and 402 seats in the House of Commons.

However, it only received 35% share of the vote – the lowest won by a single party government since the end of the war.

Speaking to ITV, Sir Keir 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.”

He also said he had expected governing to be “difficult” but added: “I wouldn’t swap a single day in opposition for a day in power.

“It’s much better to be in power, to do things.”