Starmer rules out re-running general election as petition passes 2.5million signatures

Transcript

00:00Are we having another general election?

00:02You're joking. Not another one?

00:05According to Keir Starmer, no, we're not.

00:08A petition on Parliament's website calling for a second election has gone viral

00:12and been signed by over two and a half million people.

00:15It's gained support from far and wide,

00:17with a number of signatures from the US and France.

00:19Elon Musk has also drawn attention to it.

00:21The PM, however, isn't entertaining in the idea.

00:24I'm not surprised that many of them mourned a rerun.

00:27That isn't how our system works.

00:29The petition was set up by pub landlord Michael Westwood,

00:33as he believed Labour had gone back on its promises laid out in its manifesto.

00:37But since the petition's viral fame,

00:39its creator has actually admitted

00:40that people need to be more patient with the government.

00:43When people voted on the 4th of July,

00:46what they were doing was giving the Labour Party,

00:50now the Labour government, a full five years

00:52to be able to do what they were promising.

00:55Yeah, I do agree to that.

00:56I think we should give them a bit more time, though.

01:00Of course.

01:01So what does all this mean?

01:03Well, after 100,000 signatures,

01:05petitions are considered for debate in Parliament.

01:07However, ultimately, petitions have no real powers

01:10to force Parliament to take action.

01:12And it seems Keir Starmer is still confident in his government.

01:15The thing is, if you make your mind up, as I have done,

01:18that we're going to do the difficult things first,

01:21then I think it's inevitable that people do feel their difficult decisions.

01:25Although it's received masses of attention,

01:27it's far from the largest petition Parliament has seen.

01:30In 2019, 6.1 million people signed a petition

01:34calling to essentially stop Brexit.

01:36Regardless of the PM's opposition,

01:38the petition is open and available to sign until May 2025.