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28
Nov
Harrogate district MPs react to petition calling for general election
MPs across the Harrogate district have reacted to a petition calling for another general election.
Michael Westwood, who recently set up the petition, said he feels the Labour government has gone back on promises laid out before the July election.
The petition has now amassed more than 2.8 million signatures.
The government must respond to all petitions that reach more than 10,000 signatures, while petitions with over 100,000 signatures are eligible for parliamentary debate.
A general election is highly unlikely,. However, the map of signatures on the petition suggests a particularly high number of North Yorkshire residents would support the move.
The Stray Ferret asked our local MPs if they would support another election.
Sir Alec Shelbrooke – Conservative for Wetherby and Easingwold
5,739 people in the new Wetherby and Easingwold seat, which includes parts of the Harrogate district, had signed the petition at the time of publication.
That makes up around 6% of the 91,500 constituents.
We put this to Sir Alec, who said the UK would be “better served” by a different government.
Sir Alec told the Stray Ferret:
I certainly believe the country would be better served with a different government and I don’t believe Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have a mandate to raise national insurance, introduce their family farm tax or remove winter fuel payments from vulnerable pensioners, all of which fly in the face of promises made in their manifesto.
However, the constitutional reality is that the Labour Party has a majority in the House of Commons and the ability to call a general election rests solely with Sir Keir, and he is only required to call an election before August 15, 2029.
Between now and then, he will have to grapple with being the most unpopular prime minister at this stage of a new government in modern history.
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Tom Gordon – Liberal Democrat for Harrogate and Knaresborough
Just over 4% of the 101,000 Harrogate and Knaresborough constituents had signed the petition at the time of publication.
Tom Gordon told the Stray Ferret:
I have seen the traction that the petition has been getting and understand that there are concerns that the Labour government have gone back on their pre-election promises.
Clearly there are many people around the country deeply unhappy at the decisions this government has been taking and this petition is a demonstration of that discontent. My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I have been holding Labour strongly to account, from calling on the government to scrap the family farm tax to fighting for pensioners across the country to have their winter fuel payments reinstated.
But Mr Gordon said he senses another election is not what the majority of the constituency would want.
The country instead needs to push for stability, he said, adding the voting system needs to be reformed to create fairer representation.
Mr Gordon added:
Two-thirds of the country did not vote for this government. However, with our broken first-past-the-post voting system they make up a majority in Parliament. It is clear that we need a political system with fair representation, so that politics is made to work for you again. In power, the Liberal Democrats would ensure no politician can take anyone for granted, by introducing proportional representation by the single transferable vote for electing MPs and local councillors in England.
We did not receive a response from Sir Julian Smith, a Conservative who represents Skipton and Ripon.
The petition map. Circled are the Harrogate district constituencies. Credit: Unboxed/Parliament Petition.
On the map above, the darker the shade of red the more signatures that constituency has received.
On Saturday, Elon Musk shared news of the petition reaching more than 200,000 signatures in just six hours.
Deputy leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, also shared the petition on X. He encouraged followers to sign it, saying: "let's make this the biggest petition ever in the UK".
PM 'not surprised' people want another election
Speaking on ITV's This Morning on Monday (November 25), Sir Keir ruled out the possibility of another election. He 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 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.
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