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Lawmakers clashed over calls for an early election as they debated a petition with more than a million signatures.
labor party chairs Anna Turley There was no commitment to an immediate vote, saying it would “take time” to fulfill manifesto promises.
However, during this debate, the former Conservative minister John Lamont Said voters felt “completely betrayed” by the government.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer Leading Labor to an absolute majority of 174 seats in the 2024 general election, ending the Conservative Party’s 14-year rule.
UK Parliamentary Petition titled Hold general election immediately The signature drive ended last month with a total of 1,059,231 signatures.
“We believe most people need and want change,” it reads.
Speaking in Westminster Hall, Mr Lamont told MPs: “The Labor government has now been in power for 18 months and Britain is suffering.
“Our prime minister is surrounded by advisers who seem to lack both clear goals and a coherent national plan.”
Speaking of voters and pointing at Labor MPs, he later added: “They feel completely betrayed and you are responsible for that.”
But Southport Labor MP Patrick Hurley said “democracy requires more than just knee-jerk, instinctive desires”.
He said: “If adults behaved in their working lives in the way the petition urges parliament to do – abdicating responsibility at the first sign of trouble and demanding readjustments once the results did not please them – we would call it irresponsible, we would call it naive.
“We’re not going to reward it.”
Hurley also warned that the petition was “not a well-thought-out proposal to better govern this country” and was “not accompanied by a constitutional argument that we want to change this place for the better.”
He continued: “This is simply an expression of dissatisfaction that it has taken so long for the new government to address the legacy of 14 years of chaos, division and decline caused by the opposing party.
“The economy has endured years of stagnation, the impact of the referendum has been so profound that the country’s economy has barely grown since 2016, and the Conservative government is more concerned with looking after itself than looking after the country’s most vulnerable.”
Former Tory minister Marc Francois appeared to refer to the 2024 row over Sir Keir’s acceptance of gifts from Lord Waheed Ali, including multiple pairs of glasses worth £2,485.
“At least we buy our own glasses,” Mr. Francois said from his seat.
Mr Hurley replied: “It doesn’t look like it.”
The pair had earlier clashed over the EU vote held nearly a decade ago, which Hurley described as a “self-inflicted referendum” triggered by the Conservatives.
When Mr Francois said more than 17 million voters had chosen to leave – “far more people than voted Labor at the last election” – Mr Hurley replied: “These people voted in good faith, but they were deceived by people like him.”
Mr Francois asked the Merseyside MP to retract his remarks, which he did.
Dame Harriett Baldwin, a former Conservative minister who has held a seat on the green benches since 2010, said she “can’t remember the petitions committee having to debate so much about another general election in any other parliament”.
She pointed to an earlier petition that closed in May 2025 and collected 3,084,715 signatures.
When Peter Princeley, the Labor MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, said new petitions showed “the number of people calling for an election has dropped by two-thirds”, Mrs Harriet said she would “encourage” him to “keep dreaming”.
Mrs Harriet added: “I think probably four million people signed this petition over that long period of time.”
Ms Turley, speaking on behalf of the government, said: “We will cut energy bills by £150 this year, raise the living wage by £900 a year, we have extended bus fares by £3, rates have been cut six times, we have frozen prescription fees to keep costs under £10, we have lifted half a million children out of poverty – that’s 3,000 more children in my Redcar constituency – and for pensioners we have protected the triple lock, worth more than £1,900 during this parliament. sterling.”
She added that the government had “set up 750 breakfast clubs in primary schools to help these children get a healthy start in life”, a move she said was aimed at “breaking the cycle of poverty”.
Ms Turley said Conservative MPs “may have enjoyed the chaos and upheaval” of the last government, which saw three general elections and referendums in four years.
“But the public vote ended the chaos and they want us to continue to govern the country and fix the chaos they left behind,” she continued.
“It takes time and it takes patience.”