How many people have signed the general election petition, fact ...

Around 2 million people have signed a new petition calling for another general election after several leading right-wing politicians promoted it.

The petition was started by small business owner Michael Westwood, who told the Daily Express that he felt voters had been “betrayed” by the Labour government. 

“It’s about fighting back against all the increases in taxes and the cost of inflation. As a small business we’ve got to fight back and try and help the people around us and the community,” he told the paper.

The petition itself – which had gained 1,975,312 signatures by Monday morning – states: “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.”

Why has the petition attracted so many signatures?

Since the petition was launched four days ago, it has been amplified by many leading right-wing politicians and notable figures in the UK and abroad.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of X and a member of US President Donald Trump’s incoming administration, shared a post claiming that the petition had broken a record for the fastest time to reach 100,000 signatures, calling the claim “interesting”.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP and his deputy Richard Tice MP shared the petition on Sunday, with Farage saying he’d “never seen anything like it” and Tice calling for Britons to “make this the biggest petition ever” in the UK.

The party’s three other MPs – Lee Anderson, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock – have also shared the petition on X.

Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith additionally shared a link on X, adding: “If this Labour government were a consumer product, after Rachel Reeves’s Budget tax rises (“we have no plans to increase tax”) people could return it under consumer misselling rules.”

Former Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick claimed it showed “one million people express their anger that Labour lied”, while Conservative Party chairman Nigel Huddleston said: “Labour’s honeymoon is well and truly over”.

Other Tory MPs who have shared the petition include former ministers Esther McVey and Graham Stuart.

Can you sign the petition multiple times or from abroad?

When signing an e-petition, you must enter your name, email address, country of origin and postcode. Once your details are entered, you must confirm your email is valid before the signature counts.

However, nothing prevents someone from falsely registering as a UK citizen, provided they enter a valid postcode and email address.

Only UK citizens or residents can sign the petition, with over 1.9 million having signed at the time of writing. A limited number of signatures were inputted from other countries, including 2,100 from Australia, 1,400 from Spain, 1,200 from the United States and 1,000 from France.

There are no suggestions that these are all invalid signatures, as UK citizens abroad can sign the petition.

Will the petition lead to another general election?

Under the Government’s e-petition system, any member of the public can create a petition and garner support for it.

Once a petition reaches 10,000 signatures, the Government will respond to it. If it passes 100,000 signatures, it can be considered for a debate in Parliament.

Only UK residents can create or sign a petition, which must relate to something Parliament or the Government is directly responsible for.

Recent issues that have been debated following a successful e-petition include low-traffic neighbourhoods, animal testing, teaching assistant pay, and food labelling for people with allergies.

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Petitions relating to general elections have been debated in the past. In October 2022, a petition with more than 900,000 signatures calling for “an immediate general election to end the chaos of the current government” was debated in Parliament. A second petition with 288,000 signatures, also calling for an election, was debated in January 2024.

Although numerous MPs spoke in both debates, many of whom backed the call for an early general election, no election was called until May 2024.

Only the Prime Minister can call a general election, and the petition will not have the power to require Sir Keir Starmer to hold one.

It would also be unprecedented to call a general election just four months after the Government obtained a clear majority at the previous one.

How are general elections called?

In 2011, the Fixed Terms Parliament Act came into force under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. The law set a fixed five-year term between elections and required MPs’ approval to call an early election.

However, it was repealed in 2022 and replaced with the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act, which restored the Government’s power to call an early general election at any time upon the Prime Minister’s request without permission from Parliament.

Technically, only the King has the power to call an election, but he does so on the advice of the Prime Minister.

When the Prime Minister wants to call an election, he will request a dissolution of Parliament from King Charles.

Under guidelines set out by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act, the monarch can refuse the request if Parliament remains “vital, viable, and capable of doing its job” or if an election would impact the economy.

The King can also seek to appoint another Prime Minister, who could “govern for a reasonable period with a working majority in the House of Commons”. However, any such interference or refusal from King Charles would be unprecedented in modern times.