A pub landlord who launched a viral campaign calling for another General Election after Labour put “the fear of God into people that everything was so bad” has agreed the Government should be given a bit more time.
Michael Westwood began the petition as he believed the recently elected Labour government had gone back on promises laid out in its manifesto.
The petition on Parliament’s website calling for another election has now been signed by more than two-and-a-half million people.
Mr Westwood told the MailOnline he thought Labour were being “negative all the time”.
He went on: “They were putting the fear of God into people that everything was so bad. They had also gone back on their manifesto promises.
“I was just frustrated at what I was seeing and hearing it all the time and it really annoyed me.
“I just typed into Google ‘how to change the Prime Minister’ and it came back with start a petition. So that's what I did.”
He said he was not a political person but was “very patriotic” and “didn't like the way they were talking down the country.”
He later told Sky News he set up the petition to “try and give the people a voice”.
When quizzed about whether Labour should be given a full five years to deliver on their manifesto, he told the broadcaster: “I do agree to that, but what they promised and what they are delivering in my opinion is a different thing altogether.”
When asked if they should be given a bit more time he agreed “Of course” - before adding “The concern is they have been in five months it has been doom and gloom. The budget which they have brought out is going to affect next year if not the year after.
“As a small businessman looking long term, you think to yourself ‘if this is the kind of thing they come up with in five months what the hell is five years going to look like’.”
He revealed he voted Conservative at the General Election and added “Why change something for the sake of change”.
Starmer: ‘That is not how our system works’
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out calling another general election, but said he is “not surprised” some people who did not support Labour might want a second poll.
Asked about the petition on ITV’s This Morning programme on Monday, 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 re-run. 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.”
He characterised decisions taken so far by his Government as “tough but fair”.
Sir Keir and his ministers have faced a particularly strong backlash for limiting winter fuel payments to only the poorest pensioners.
Farmers have also protested over changes to inheritance tax which they claim could affect the future of their businesses.
As he marks five months as Prime Minister, Sir Keir acknowledged the job has been 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, rather than the frustration, as I found it, in opposition for all of those long years where we were just able to say what we would do.”
The petition calling for another general election is open for signatures until May 2025.
While the vast majority of those signing it are from the UK, it has also gained support from other countries.
More than 1,200 people from the US have added their names to it, with similar a number from France doing the same.
American signatories may have been made aware of the petition by Elon Musk, the businessman and ally of President-elect Donald Trump.
He shared the petition on X, the social media site he owns formerly known as Twitter, claiming “the people of Britain have had enough of a tyrannical police state”.
Downing Street sought to avoid being drawn into a war of words with Mr Musk.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman added Sir Keir was “focused on the issues that matter most to the British people”.
Some of the UK constituencies with the highest number of signatories appear to be Tory-held seats.
More than 5,800 people have signed it in Brentwood and Ongar where shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart is MP, while 5,200 have signed it in Tory chief whip Rebecca Harris’s Castle Point constituency.
Although it has garnered media attention and millions of signatures, it is far from the largest petition received through the Parliament website, or the one which has seen the most rapid take-up.
In 2019, some 6.1 million people signed a petition calling for the revocation of Article 50 and for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union, four million of whom did so in 48 hours.
The second most-signed petition gained 4.1 million signatures.
The 2016 petition called for a second referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union following the Brexit vote.
Because the election petition has received 10,000 signatures, ministers will issue a response to it.
Among those sharing the petition online was retired actor Sir Michael Caine, who has been critical of Labour governments in the past.
