Labour MPs dismiss the petition to call for a general election as the result of “misinformation” and “foreign interference”
RHODA WILSON
On Monday, the House of Commons debated the petition “call another general election.” Here are the highlights. If you aren’t one of those who are disappointed in the Labour government or Labour MPs then you need to watch the debate. It demonstrates why millions registered their dissatisfaction and no confidence in the current UK regime by signing the petition.
Jamie Stone, Scottish Member of Parliament (“MP”) and chairman of the Petitions Committee, opened the debate: “Let us remember that petitions are first and foremost a mechanism of civic engagement and political expression. As individual politicians, each and every one of us resides in this place, in this House, only at the behest of our constituents, and it is surely paramount that a dialogue is always facilitated between us and the public … Ultimately, we work for all those who put their name to this petition.”
“An election cannot be called as a result of a petition. It is a fact that on 4 July, the Labour party won a majority, and they will remain in office for the duration of their term or until the Prime Minister seeks permission from the sovereign to dissolve Parliament at a time of his choosing,” he said.
“I think that any Government would be wrong to assume that they act in a vacuum,” he added.
Yasmin Qureshi, Labour Member of Parliament for Bolton South and Walkden, said: “This petition has grown partly because of a lot of misinformation and partly because of foreign interference.”
Trying to make out that the Labour government is looking out for the interests of the UK and its citizens which justifies the much-touted “tough decisions” it has had to make such as removing winter fuel bills for the elderly, introducing inheritance tax for farmers and raising national insurance contributions, Quereshi said: “Everybody is talking about how we can regenerate the economy, and the stuff that we are doing on green energy and renewables will also create loads of jobs and regenerate our economy—[Interruption.] I hear some Opposition Members sniggering and laughing.”
Unfortunately for Qureshi, the public who have seen that Ed Miliband’s green agenda is a scam will be sniggering and laughing at the comment as well. (RW: I am sniggering and laughing at her ludicrous claims as I write.)
Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, responded to Qureshi, “It would be foolish to ignore this petition, as an expression of public disappointment and anger. I do not want to be overtly party political, but I do think it would be useful for the Government not just to dismiss the petition as having been cooked up abroad – apparently – or by nefarious anti-democratic forces. I think it would be quite wise to listen to the public. If they are in a black hole – if indeed there is a black hole – I say to the Government: just stop digging.” (RW: Hear, hear)
Sir Edward, who is the Father of the House, then proceeded to give the Labour government some much-needed “fatherly advice.” (RW: If the Labour government acts like children let loose in a sweet shop, which is what they have been doing since 4 July, then fatherly advice is exactly what they need.)
“I just [gave] that advice to the Government. Of course, they will not take it, but it is always useful when bringing in reforms to think of the general public, and how those reforms will impact on people and relate to their sense of alienation,” he said. (RW: He’s right. The Labour government is acting like a petulant and spoilt child which has an inflated and arrogant view of itself.)
Apart from paying homage to the climate change cult by saying “We must solve climate change,” Sir Edward makes some good points. You can hear Sir Edwards’s speech beginning at timestamp 16:50.
He concluded, “My advice to the Government is: you can ignore this petition – of course, you will ignore this petition, in the sense that there will not be a general election – but do not ignore the sense of alienation and frustration that lies behind it.”
Which is, of course, exactly what the Labour government is doing as proven by a remark made by Mark Francois, Conservative MP for Rayleigh and Wickford. He said, “It is an extraordinary thing that we are debating a petition calling for a general election, barely six months from the previous election. It is even more extraordinary that that petition generated over 3 million signatures in just a few weeks. It is also highly noteworthy that of the 650 parliamentary constituencies in the UK, six of the top 10 by number of signatures are in the county of Essex. That includes my constituency of Rayleigh and Wickford, which is at No. 8. I do not see an Essex Labour MP here.”
Francois had done what every single MP should have done – he spoke to his constituents about why they had signed the petition before the debate. As well as concerns about the economy, tax increases, public sector wage increases, withdrawal of the winter fuel allowances, Labour’s sham of fixing the “black hole” in the Government’s budget, the number of people illegally arriving in “small boats” and Labour’s plan for devolution.
“Labour’s plan for so-called devolution, as outlined in a White Paper before Christmas. In Essex, it would replace a two-tier system of local government with another two-tier system of local government that would take decisions even further away from local people. It is a Trojan horse designed to concrete over our green belt in Essex and is based largely on Sadiq Khan’s systems, as is clear from reading the White Paper. I can tell the House that the last thing we want in Essex is another Sadiq Khan,” Francois said.
He continued: “There are 7,287 people in my Rayleigh and Wickford constituency who have signed the petition. We cannot know why every one of them signed it. Perhaps they were enraged that Labour promised no new tax increases and then put taxes up by 40 billion quid. Perhaps they are among the up to 10 million pensioners who have had their winter fuel allowance taken away by the Chancellor. Perhaps they are among the 3.8 million WASPI women who were led up the garden path by Labour, from the PM downwards, prior to the general election and were dumped unceremoniously thereafter. Perhaps they believed Labour’s promises to smash the gangs, only to see arrivals increase by a third since Labour took office. Or perhaps they have just realised that when Labour promised change, what it really meant was more taxes, more bureaucracy and even more boats.”
“Whatever it was, we now have a Labour Government who, by breaking so many of their promises so early to those who elected them, have already all but surrendered their moral right to govern. The British people want change all right: they want a change from Labour, and the sooner the better,” he concluded. (RW: Hear, hear.)
Nigel Farage, Reform MP for Clacton, noted his constituency represented the third highest number of petition signatures. “They knew that [a fresh general election] would not happen; what they were actually expressing was a sense of utter disenchantment with the entire political system,” he said. “Something [big] is going on out there.”
Farage responds to General Election Petition, 6 January 2024 (6 mins)
“Most new Governments come into power with positive plans to get things done quickly; they are often defined by early successes in their first 100 days in office and they move fast to deliver on election promises,” Conservative MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, John Lamont said. “However, this Labour Government are not normal.” (RW: Damn right!).
He said, “UK Labour is driving Scottish Labour into a ditch and nobody in Scottish Labour has the backbone to stand up to them … It is no wonder that so many people in the borders and across Scotland are losing trust in Labour. More and more people are moving away from Scottish Labour because they see that it does not stand for anything except broken promises. It has betrayed workers, businesses, pensioners, farmers and our oil and gas industry. Labour has broken its word on tax, on women’s rights, on social security and on energy bills. Anas Sarwar [leader of the Scottish Labour Party] must be terrified of who this Labour Government are going to hit next.”
Damian Hinds, Conservative MP for East Hampshire, recognised the importance of petitions. “This petition has succeeded already in a very important way: it has brought this debate to Westminster Hall. It is a broader debate than we are often able to have,” he said.
Adding, “There are always people who are unhappy with the Government, and there are always people who are going to be unhappy with an incoming Government, but the speed of the fall of the current Government really is quite striking.” (RW: For Labour MPs, this is the crucial point that they dare not admit. It is the speed at which Starmer and his cronies have fallen and it will be theirs as well unless they stop taking orders from party central and start to stand up for their constituents.)
As Hinds explained, “In our system, no petition can force a general election. It is the decision of the Prime Minister of the day, or if he or she is forced by a confidence vote.” (RW: Starmer will never have the courage to recognise how universally unpopular he and his policies are and do the right thing. Will Labour MPs be able to critically assess the situation? Not likely. As Sir John Whittingdale pointed out, “A Labour Government were brought down in a confidence vote in 1979. With a majority of 170, that is unlikely to happen to this Government.”)
Douglas McAllister, Labour MP for West Dunbartonshire, said exactly the wrong thing and repeated Labour’s mantra about foreign influence and in doing so completely ignored the British public, “[Some MPs] want to pander to populist nonsense at the start of a new year and, worse still, echo dangerous foreign influences … This is not a serious proposition before us today [i.e. the petition], but we do now have a serious Government.” (RW: With that level of arrogance, Labour is on a hiding to nothing.)
Another Labour MP who is completely out of touch with the public mood and invented reasons why people signed the petition was Deirdre Costigan. She foolishly said, “I understand that the people who signed this petition feel angry, and a lot of people are angry in my constituency of Ealing Southall. They are angry because their kids cannot buy a home, they are angry because their parents cannot get the hip operation they need and they are angry because, when their car gets nicked or their house gets burgled, the police do not seem to be able to do much about it. But it is clear where the blame for this lies … the Conservative party.” (RW: Does Costigan think her constituents are idiots?)
Mike Wood, MP for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, said his constituent Michael Westwood had not raised the petition because of “foreign interference” as Qureshi has accused. Qureshi dug her hole deeper by interjecting and clarifying, “What I said was that it was misinformation, as well as foreign interference and politicising. I mentioned those three things, not just one.”
Wood responded by saying, “I am not sure that has entirely helped her case.” (RW: Exactly.)
Qureshi then tried to backtrack, “At no time did I say that the individual constituent was being influenced by a foreign. No, I did not say that. I said that the petition on its own, as it was sold, has been motivated by a number of factors. At no time did I attribute anything to the individual constituent.” (RW: Nope, she still hasn’t helped her case.)
Wood responded, “I think the words speak for themselves, and Mr Westwood is sitting there having brought the petition forward and gained 3 million signatures. The signatures reflect the strength of the public’s dissatisfaction, frustration and betrayal with the Labour Government’s failure to uphold the promises they made during the election campaign … When [election manifesto] promises are not fulfilled or, worse, are abandoned, trust between the electorate and the Government erodes.”
And that is the problem the Labour government doggedly refuses to acknowledge. As Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay Richard Holden noted, “I would just caution some Government Members. One of them said that this was a debate on a pointless motion, but over 3 million people have signed the petition because they are really concerned about what the Government are doing … There is real concern among the public that people were misled ahead of the general election … There are real frustrations up and down the country among small businesses, family farms, ordinary working people and pensioners.” (RW: That’s just the tip of the iceberg.)
He continued, “The Government’s failures and broken promises started early. On the morning of 5 July, the new Prime Minister walked up to the door of Downing Street and talked about a Government of service. Looking on, with a new pass and new access, was the major Labour donor Lord Alli. From the off, it has been clear that the promises of integrity, accountability and transparency from this Government have been broken. From the literal first day of the Labour Government, the public could not help feeling that Labour was selling out and selling them short.”
“Soon afterwards, it came to light that the Labour Government were using exceptional civil service appointment procedures to put Labour donors and activists into positions that, fundamentally, are meant to be politically neutral. The sense was that this Government, even in their first few weeks, were systematically destroying the mechanisms that hold an elected Government to account in the interests of the whole public.
“Sadly, the Government have dismissed the petition, just as Government Members have done today. They have dismissed the voices of the public. This Labour Government are giving the impression that they just do not care and that they feel they are above the sentiments of the public … The public are not stupid. They can see exactly what is happening and what this Government are doing in office.”
Richard Holden, Debate on General Election, Westminster Hall, 6 January 2025
(RW: I could not find one comment from a Labour MP that showed he/she understood the reasons or addressed why so many Britons had signed a petition for the Prime Minister to call another general election. Verdict: After that debate, the public has no confidence in the Labour government or Labour MPs. This is not going to end well for Labour.)
You can watch the full debate on Parliament TV HERE or read the debate in Hansard HERE.
This article (Labour MPs dismiss the petition to call for a general election as the result of “misinformation” and “foreign interference”) was created and published by The Expose and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Rhoda Wilson
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RELATED
ICYMI – UK Parliament debates the 3 million strong petition to redo the 4 July 2024 general election – Labour MP’s give it the finger.
PETER HALLIGAN
Remember this?
(66) FYI UK petition to redo the 4 July 2024 election passes 3 million signatories!
The 4 July 2024 UK general election was a disaster for representative democracy. The turnout was a multi-decade low. From Brave AI:
“The voter turnout for the 2024 UK general election was estimated to be 60%, marking the lowest turnout since 2001 when it was 59.4%. This decline is significant compared to previous elections, where voter turnout rarely fell below 70% between 1922 and 1997.”
From Wili, 28.9 million people turned out to vote out of 48.2 million registered voters. Voters really had nothing to vote FOR and could only express dissatisfaction with the ruling Tory party by not voting at all or voting for either the Lib Dems or UK Reform.
In the end, Labour more than doubled its number of seats from 202 in the 2019 election to 411 in 2024, despite its share of the vote increasing by just 1.6% from 32.1% to 33.7%.
Just 20% of the registered electorate and 63% of the seats in Parliament. Looks absurd.
Those not voting were not motivated AGAINST Labour by reading its manifesto, this from April 2024, three months before the general election:
You get the government you deserve – or the government you didn’t vote for!
The IK facts the same problems faced by all western nations including the US.
C19 has been memory holed – any country that ignores the harms and deaths of millions of its citizens – and the likely tripling of harms and deaths in the next decade – has no legitimacy.
Extra deaths over 2019 levels in the US are around 2.5 million with six times that number severely or seriously injured. The UK took on similar measures as the US – its numbers are likely to be around one fifth those of the US on a population relative basis.
There is not a hint of curiosity in the UK for the carnage wrought by Midazolam + morphine in April 2020
– let alone the number of extra deaths caused by experimental C19 injections or that resulted for the massive psychological stress on the most vulnerable in security – or the denial of use of proven treatments like Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin and Vitamin D protocols. Not a hint of an apology for the futile lockdowns, social-distancing, and masking measures. Not forgetting the fake “diagnosis” of cases using the useless RT-PCR rest
All we see is a white-washing of the genocide using experimental mRNA and viral vector injections of poison – and a denial of the tsunami of injuries and deaths still to come.
There is a pre-ponderance of elderly, infirm and poor people amongst the victims of the scamdemic. This disproportionate harming of the vulnerable is a common theme.
The next issue is the “net zero” agenda. There is no climate crisis, nor will there be one in the next fifty years – at least not one of “warming” – maybe a “cooling” crisis instead – as the narrative returns to that of fifty years ago.
Simply put, the “net zero” agenda involves the replacement of cheap, reliable and unobtrusive hydrocarbon energy such as gas, oil and coal, with “renewable energy” that is five times the price, ugly, and which is intermittent – working less than half the time. – all the renewable energy produced requires a 100% back up with hydrocarbons, when it fails to deliver.
And during the time that it actually works, it causes an oversupply that cannot be “consumed” resulting in bursts of negative prices! 0that result in massive losses for the generator of the electricity produced!). On top of that wind turbine forests and solar panel plantations use up valuable food producing land and/or the elimination of flora and fauna on land and at sea!
coastal and city socialist Cults assume that the entire population is capable of sustaining huge increases in energy prices and everyone can afford EV’s.
Of course they can’t.
The poorest, sickest and the elderly barely get by on lower energy prices of hydrocarbon fuels. A doubling of their energy bills can only give rise to “heat or eat” decisions – and washing in cold water.
Had the roll-out of “renewables” been handled differently, maybe something of their value could have been captured. Showing REDUCTIONS in household bills – for those less fortunate – as some forests and plantations of renewables were rolled out to provide a better, more acceptable and visible solution.
As it is, households have had to pay for the construction of renewable “plants” and the interest on the national debt from the fiscal deficit spending these “renewable plants” cost – and then has to pay for energy bills that are multiples of those of the past and which they can afford.
Who suffers disproportionately from this useless and futile spending – devised by the science deniers in a Cult?
The poor, the elderly and the infirm.
Which brings us to the last major problem that major welfare-based economies have to deal with,
Illegal immigration of beggars.
In previous auricles I have guesstimated that each 10 million of migrant beggars in the US costs around 100,000 each – made up of 50,000 in direct costs for food, housing and health and another 50,000 in indirect costs for policing, displacement of Americans from services via crowding out – including jobs, hospitals, education, legal costs, policing, translation services and so on.
How many lots of ten million migrant beggars are there in the US? Two, three or four?
The cost of living in the UK is lower because the UK is much poorer than the US.
I guesstimate that there are 2 million immigrant beggars in the UK, but that they cost 25,000 pounds each, a year – for a total cost of around 50 billion pounds a year. Compare that to the 1.4 billion pounds of savings from the cancellation of winter fuel payments to the elderly and the 20 billion “black hole” that Labour “discovered” in the inherited Tory budget and the 150 billion a year cost of servicing 3 trillion of national debt,
the real size of the “black hole” in the UK’s fiscal budget is closer to 100 billion pounds a year and the Labour government is increasing it, rather than running the fiscal surpluses necessary to reduce national deb.
The UK Labour government plans to solve the housing crisis caused by these 2 million migrant beggars by building them houses at the rate of 150,000 a year for the next five years. Recall that Cackler Harris had similar plans to build 3 million houses over four years in her campaign for POTUS, 740,000 “green houses” a year compared to 150,000 a year in the UK – identical per capote of population! A real WEF plan?!?
Each (” green”) house will cost around 350,000 pounds and will be built by immigrant labour from the EU probably (there aren’t enough skilled builders in the UK that are not already building houses). Five-year cost for 750,000 “green” houses”? Around 262.5 billion pounds – which will easily surpass 500 billion by the time the inflationary effects are felt over five years.
Who suffers the most from the crowding effects of migrant beggars? You guessed it. The poorest, the sickest and the elderly. All the resources – 50 billion a year in “maintenance costs” plus 52.5 billion a year in housing costs, could be going to the most disadvantaged in society – instead these resources are being consumed by immigrant beggars,
Tou could liken the rape and pillage of the UK and US economy by migrant beggars to the grooming and rape of young white English girls by meddle-aged Pakistani men – only the vulnerable in the three cases above – C19 scamdemic, “net zero” policies” and the mass invasion of migrant beggars over decades – impacts the poor, the elderly and the infirm much harder than any other sector of the population – and is a war of attrition on the vulnerable, rather than a violent physical assault on the innocent and vulnerable.
It is not so much a “redo” of the UK general election that is needed – it is more about the desperate need for competency, quality and rational objective setting by those that stand as members of parliament!
UK Reform might be he answer. Even though it has just 5 MP’s, it needs a credible manifesto for each government ministry and a “bench” of at least 400 competent and credible leaders – backed up by a dozen “aides” each – to campaign on, and implement policies that people expect – from a zero-based budget – in each government department and ministry.
incidentally, did you know that a young Pakistani cricketer, playing in South Africa a few days ago, sustained an ankle fracture and was rushed to a hospital – IN LONDON. UK? I am sure the odd million Londoners on an NHS waiting list did not mind.
Expose-news.com covered the story about the “parliamentary debate” initiated by the 3 million petitioners here:
Lastly, investors in UK government bonds seem to be taking fright and flight.
UK Gilt 3.5% January 2045
Using a modified duration of 13,5 years, the one-year return for this 20-year Gilt is equal to the start yield of 4.4% MINUS the capital loss which is around 13.5% (1% increase in yields times 13.5 years modified duration) = MINUS 9.1%
Yikes!
For a US based investor, the US$/£ rate has also moved a few percent against, so any currency unhedged investment has had that loss increased to around -11%.
The global capital markets are not fooled by discal suicide by any nation – including the UK.
Expect a sovereign credit downgrade any day now. The UK barely has enough discretionary income from taxation left over to service its 3 trillion-pound debt, let alone the trillion pound spending plans of a bunch of socialist morons.
One has to wonder what impact this rise in yields has on UK pension funds that have not matched inflation linked pension liabilities and just has fixed coupon gilts! Rising inflation costs for its pension liabilities have increased and any fixed coupon gilt holdings intended to match these have tanked!
Don’t forget, in two years’ time, anyone that dies, forfeits 40% of their estate to the government! talk about a wealth grab – Marxists hate wealth, unless they can take it and waste it! I maintain that taxation is theft. Marxists think that property (and wealth) is theft!
Onwards!!!
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Source: Peter Halligan
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