Disaster for Keir Starmer as tens of thousands demand general election now in new petition
Sir Keir Starmer could be getting hot under the collar as a petition calling for “an immediate General Election” has hit nearly 60,000 signatures. The vote on the UK Government and Parliament’s own petition portal asks for people to sign if they feel they would agree with the statement “we want an immediate General Election to be held. We think the majority need and want change”.
Under rules for petitions submitted to Parliament, the Government will respond to any which receive more than 10,000 signatures, meaning this latest appeal has reached the threshold. Once a petition reaches 100,000 signatures the website states it earns the right to “be considered for debate in Parliament”. At the time of writing, more than 57,000 people have put their name to the call for another General Election, just over a year since Labour came to power on July 4, 2024. It will make grim reading for the Prime Minister whose administration has been dogged by major issues including failing to address the ongoing migrant crisis, as well as performing embarrassing U-turns on unpopular financial decrees such as withdrawing winter fuel payments for pensioners.
The PM could be getting hot under the collar over this latest petition (Image: PA )
A petition calling for an ‘immediate election’ has been gaining thousands of votes online (Image: PA )
It’s not the first time Sir Keir has faced cries to call another election. In January MPs debated another petition with called for a re-run of the contest after it reached 2.8 million signatures.
The petition did not trigger another national election buy Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch taunted the PM during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons. She said it showed “two million people asking him to go”.
Sir Keir responded by saying the election result on July 4 last year as a “massive petition” in itself.
During the contest Labour won 412 seats at the ballot box, compared to 121 for the Tories. But Sir Keir’s party only managed to secure 33.7% of the vote share, only marginally more than the 32.2% acheived by Jeremy Corbyn in his disastrous 2019 election campaign and far less than the 45% acheived by Tony Blair for his Labour victory in 1997.
Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria vote in the General Election last year (Image: PA )
Labour have also faced increasing pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party which won an unprecedented 14.3% of the vote share last year, gaining six MPs in the Commons.
The number has since risen to seven after a by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in May, which was triggered after Labour MP Mike Amesbury was filmed punching a man in his constituency.
Labour blasted for ‘assault on rural Britain’ with ‘cruel’ farmer tax raid
Labour’s inheritance tax raid has sparked a series of protests by farmers (Image: Getty)
Labour is carrying out an “assault on rural Britain”, Kemi Badenoch has warned. The Tory leader launched a fresh attack on Sir Keir Starmer’s government over its “cruel” and “unnecessary” inheritance tax raid as she visited a family farm in her North West Essex constituency today.
Labour has faced an ongoing backlash for slapping inheritance tax on farms worth over £1 million in the autumn budget. Writing in the Daily Express, the leader of the Opposition said: “Before last year’s general election, Keir Starmer looked farmers in the eye and promised he would protect their way of life.
“A year later and this Labour government is conducting an assault on rural Britain.
“It started with the family farms tax, the deeply damaging inheritance tax policy in Labour’s first budget that threatens the very existence of family farms, passed down from generation to generation.
“I have spoken to countless farmers across the country since Rachel Reeves announced her changes to Agricultural Property Relief, and they all tell me the same thing – they don’t think the Labour Party understands that farming is not just a job, it is a way of life and a deeply rooted tradition. Labour are destroying this tradition.”
Mrs Badenoch, whose grandfather was a farmer, insisted that farming “is the backbone of this nation and must be cherished, and without it we cannot eat”.
She added: “By contrast, Labour are risking the country’s entire food security for less than 0.01% of total government spending.”
Calling for a U-turn on the policy, Mrs Badenoch went on: “Labour’s family farm tax is cruel, unnecessary and fundamentally wrong.
“It must be scrapped immediately. If this government will not listen, then the next Conservative government will act.”
The Tory leader’s blistering intervention comes after she visited Sam Goddard, 37, at his arable farm in Little Walden, Essex, today.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch speaks with farmer Sam Goddard during her visit on Tuesday (Image: PA)
Speaking to the Express, the fourth-generation farmer said he feared for the future of his family business.
Mr Goddard said: “It does leave us very worried for the future of the farm in the sense that it’s not possible to see how the business as it currently functions could survive even really one generational change, let alone two.
“When you think that we’ve been farming this land for multiple generations, four in my case, it’s very sad to think that a policy like this would bring that sort of heritage to an end.
“I don’t know if that’s the purpose of it but that’s certainly what it’s going to do.
“In that sense it is destroying family farms, or it will do, over the course of a number of years.”
Mr Goddard, who grows wheat for products such as biscuits and cereal as well as animal feed, said the policy would have a “huge impact” on his farm.
He said: “Effectively the rate of it and the value of the farmland that we use to produce food means that on the death of a family member we’ll be left with an inheritance tax bill even spread over 10 years that actually results in payments higher than the profits of the farm.
“So even if we were to borrow money or spread those payments out over 10 years it will still mean effectively either no salary as family members for 10 years and no investment in any machinery or improvements to the farm in that time.
“What that means is that some assets would have to be sold, effectively selling part of the factory floor, which obviously decreases the viability of the business overall. You’ve got the same machinery, the same overheads, and less ability to produce food, so it’s going to have a huge impact.”
The 37-year-old added that he was “hopeful” for a U-turn at the upcoming autumn budget.
He said: “I think what we need Starmer and Reeves to realise is the amount of damage that this policy is already doing even before it comes into force, even before farmers start to die and pass their family farms down to the next generation.
“It’s doing a lot of damage already. It’s stopping people from investing, it’s stopping people from growing their businesses.
“They need to realise this is not going to be revenue raiser for the Treasury, it’s going to cost them money because the agricultural industry is stagnating and shrinking.
“They need to do a U-turn, they need to put in place at the very least a delay, or a more sensible version of this policy.
“Really it should be scrapped altogether to allow farms to stay as multigenerational businesses, which is what they need to be in order to provide long-term food supply to the country.”
The Tory leader visits Sam Goddard’s farm in her North West Essex constituency (Image: PA)
Chancellor Rachel Reeves sparked fury from farmers after restricting the current 100% inheritance tax relief for farms to the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property, or up to £3 million in certain circumstances, in the autumn budget last October.
Under the plans, there will be a 20% levy above that threshold, which is half the standard inheritance tax rate of 40%.
The changes, which have prompted a series of major protests in London, are due to come into force next April.
But campaigners have warned the policy could spell the end of family farms across the country, while there have been reports of desperate farmers pushed to the brink of suicide.
Critics have also raised fears over the impact of the plans on UK food security.
The tax break had allowed farms, which are often asset-rich but cash-poor, to be handed down through generations without incurring a bill.
The changes have been criticised by other opposition parties including Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the Lib Dems.
The Daily Express has been campaigning for a U-turn with our Save Britain’s Family Farm crusade.
A Government spokesperson said: “Our commitment to farming and food security is steadfast. We’ve allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and have appointed former NFU president Baroness Minette Batters to recommend new reforms to boost farmers’ profits.
“Most estates claiming Agricultural and Business Property Reliefs will be unaffected by the changes. The latest data shows that 40% of Agricultural Property Relief – worth £219m – was directed to just 117 estates. The money raised will go towards public services we all rely on every day instead.”
