We all knew that this viral petition was never going to result in a general election – even it has reached a staggering 2.5 million signatures in just 3 days – but even still, I suppose it’s useful for Keir Starmer and the Labour government to see just how unhappy people are with their running of the country thus far.
Here’s how Keir Starmer reacted when asked about the petition this week (at the point it hit 2 million signatures):
🇬🇧 “Are you now feeling the pressure?”
“Your approval rating is lower than Nigel Farages right now” pic.twitter.com/Cy60SOOf5p
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) November 25, 2024
The PM blamed ‘difficult’ decisions in the Budget for the backlash against him and insisted the petition just reminded him that ‘very many people didn’t vote Labour’.
‘I’m not surprised 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.’
Doesn’t really seem too bothered, does he? Which I suppose makes sense because at the end of the day, he was democratically elected just a few months ago, and we can’t realistically expect another general election this early into his tenure. Even if he has already gone back on a load of campaign promises, escalated the situation with Russia, cosied up to BlackRock, p1ssed off the farmers, made a shambles of the winter fuel allowance, and all the rest of it.
Still, it’s pretty mental that Keir Starmer had an approval rating of +4 on election day, and is now sitting at -29 just four months later. That is unprecedented, surely? Even legendary UK actor Michael Caine took the time out to share the petition on his socials:
Call a General Election – Petitions https://t.co/ZhVgi7uGLG
— Michael Caine (@themichaelcaine) November 25, 2024
At the end of the day though, Keir Starmer responded to the petition the only way he could. It’s not like he’s ever going to call a general election on himself, and even if he did, it would set a precedent where we’d be having general elections all the time. Still, it’s good that he’s got the message as to how disgruntled some of the population is with his decision-making thus far. Here’s hoping he can turn it around?
For the time Keir Starmer called for the ‘return of the sausages’ from Gaza, click HERE. Now there’s a policy we can get behind…
