Thousands of York residents have signed a petition calling for an early general election.
They are among 2.6 million Britons who have backed the online petition, which was started by pub landlord Michael Westwood.
Michael said he wanted another election because “I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on their promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election.”
It has garnered way more signatures than the 100,000 required for it to be considered by Parliament for a debate.
At time of publication, 2,787 signatures originate from the York Central constituency, represented by Labour’s Rachael Maskell.
This is just over 2.5% of the 109,000 constituents.
And 3,809 signatures are from York Outer, won by Luke Charters in the 4 July election. That’s 4% of the 93,500 population.
Here’s the data from other constituencies:
- Selby (Keir Mather MP – Lab) 5,518 signatures, 5.4%
- Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake, Cons) 6,528 signatures, 6.7%
- Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke, Cons) 5,807 signatures, 6.34%.
Independent York councillor Mark Warters said support for the petition was due to “the thoroughly unpopular government elected with only 20% of the electorate clearly running an agenda not in the interests of the UK”.
However, Mr Charters argued that the figures meant little, and only “a tiny number of York residents, and very high numbers of bots from overseas, have signed this petition”.
He added, “As someone born and raised in York, it’s a privilege to serve as York Outer MP, elected in July with a 9,000-strong majority as part of a historic Labour Government.
“With over four years until the next General Election, we’re focused on making the tough decisions to rebuild our country. I’m committed to being a visible and accessible MP.”
Ms Maskell also rejected calls for another general election, and feels the difficult decisions Labour has made following “14 years of chaos” are no real reason to introduce one.
She said: “Labour’s commitment to the public remains rock solid, however it would be true to say that the state the Tories left our national finances in is worse than the Office of Budget Responsibility had assessed and likewise with the other Government Departments.
“It was therefore imperative that Labour Ministers undertook a full appraisal of the state of the country when entering office and some very difficult decisions had to be made to prevent a further recession.”
Ms Maskell believes raising concerns is healthy, but as Labour’s time in office has been so short there is time to reconfigure the country.
She added, “I am reading the reasons why people are finding things difficult and believe that, so early on in an administration, we need time to reset the country, while acting on any specific concerns like winter fuel and then test the system.”
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