A PETITON calling for another election to get rid of Labour has gone viral and gained more than two million signatures – but what does it tell us about the popularity crisis threatening Keir Starmer?
The Prime Minister has been clear for a long time now that getting just one term is insufficient to achieve his mission of a “decade of national renewal”. He wants at least two.
The electorate very begrudgingly gave him one and, if the polls are anything to go by, Starmer has a mountain to climb to win the next election in five years’ time.
Labour won on what is thought to be the highest vote efficiency ever – a fancy way of saying they are probably the least popular government to come into office ever, despite their massive majority.
That majority is large but fragile and Labour’s opponents know it. This is why they will highlight any piece of evidence which shows that the Government is downright unpopular.
Their chief task will be to prove that Labour voters are having buyer’s remorse after July. Unfortunately for them, the petition does not show that.
Our analysis of the petition, which details the constituencies where signatories live, shows that support is concentrated mostly in areas that did not support Labour four months ago.
READ MORE: What happens when a UK Parliament petition hits 100,000 signatures?
Of the top 10, just one is represented by a Labour MP Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock. The most supportive area is West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, where Labour at the last election won just 13% of the vote.
As the Americans might say: Duh.
What the election petition shows – and here I am glancing to the English results as well – is that those voters who “lost” the last election want a re-run. This should come as no surprise, given that it has also been shared with arch-Starmer hater Elon Musk (below).
The areas where people are least supportive of the petition are reassuring for Labour, too. Every Glasgow seat is in the list of least supportive constituencies, as are all but one of the seats in Edinburgh.
They were the places Labour had to win to realise their Scottish renaissance earlier this year and must hold on to if they want to keep their mandate north of the Border.
At any given time you could easily find two million people in the whole UK that want the current government out – regardless of what colour rosette they wear.
And while it will be easy for Labour to dismiss this petition, as they have, as the rumblings of their staunchest critics who they will never please, what they cannot do is pretend their regime is popular.
We’ve been told before that Starmer’s right-hand man Morgan McSweeney wants to run the UK Government as a permanent campaigning vehicle for the next election.
He won't lose sleep over this petition – but the polls will have him climbing the walls.
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