General Election petition: This Sussex town has the highest number of people calling for new government after support from Michael Caine

The petition was started by pub-owner Michael Westwood and accuses the ruling Labour Party of going back on the promises it made before their election win in July.

Mr Westwood wrote: "I would like there to be another General Election.

"I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election."

If a petition reaches 100,000 signatures, it may be considered for a parliamentary debate, and the government must respond to petitions with 10,000 signatures.

Those who have signed hope for the matter to be discussed in Parliament, or at least to be addressed at the expense of Keir Starmer's personal pride, as reported by our parent title, National World.

This petition has been backed by big names like Michael Caine, Richard Tice and Nigel Farage.

A map shows that the Arundel and South Downs constituency – which is still under Conservative control – had the highest number of people to sign the petition across Sussex (5,887 signatures). This represents 6.057 per cent of 97,200 constituents.

We shared news of the petition on our Facebook pages across Sussex – and have received hundreds of responses.

Val Constable was in favour, commenting that Labour have ‘not done anything to help the people of this country’.

Sheena Walduck ‘signed and shared’ the petition, commenting: “He (Keir Starmer) is neglecting the British people and the country he said he would change.”

Vikki Thomas wrote: “It should be law that parties have uphold at least 70 per cent of their manifesto. Why bother voting otherwise?

"Anyone who gets a job then doesn't do what they said they can do gets sacked.”

Simon Hinkinson said: “I signed it. I know it’ll just get thrown out and ignored, but hopefully it will at least get the message across that 2,260,000 people, (16:25, 25/11/24), are not happy with him and his party.”

Sue Sutherland wrote: “The reason people are voting to get him out is because he has completely reversed all promises made...even those who voted for him are now opposed.”

However, plenty of people expressed the opposite view.

"Bad losers by any chance?” Bob Burke wrote. “There is an almighty mess to sort out and it's going to take time. As a nation we need to get behind the country and work towards a better future.”

Christopher Drake said there were ‘two million too many’ people ‘shouting with no valuable solutions’.

He added: “General elections are a democratic process. If you don’t like the result – tough.”

Robert Stevens Bassett agreed. He wrote: “We live in a democracy and have elections and if you don’t like the result – then tough. There are plenty of people live in countries who don’t have democracy.”

Michael Pegg said those calling for a new election ‘can have one in four years’.

Sue Hill shared the view that Labour should be given ‘time to clear up years of mess’.

Arthur Brown wrote: “We live in a democracy. We voted in a general election. If a small proportion of the population do not agree with the result (two million signatures is less than three per cent of the UK population) then hard luck.”

Neil Phillips said: “We’ve had the election. Are we going to have petitions every time we start sulking because something didn’t go our way? Embarrassing really. What a joke of a country we’ve become.”

Petitions on the UK government website allow citizens to request changes in policy or action from the government. Any UK citizen or resident aged 18 or over can sign a petition.

This process was created back in 2006 to modernise and enhance the way the public could engage with the government.

As of 11.45am on Tuesday, November 26, the petition has 2,612,924 signatures.

All petitions run for six months with the deadline for this one being May 20, 2025. To sign, visit petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700143.