A petition calling for fresh general election in the UK has reached over 1.7 million signatures as the Labour government faces widespread disapproval regarding its policies and post-poll work. Even Tesla boss Elon Musk chimed in on the issue by reposting a message about the success of the petition. According to the guidelines, any petition that asks for a change to the law or to policies gets a response from the government after 10,000 signatures. After 100,000 signatures, petitions are considered for debate in the parliament.

“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,” the petition description reads.

As of the last update, the petition had raked up 1,771,423 signatures and counting. The petition was started by Michael Westwood who runs Britain’s ‘cheapest pub’. He said he did not imagine in his wildest dreams that Mr Musk would quote post his petition.

“The General Election petition has now DESTROYED the 200k target within 6 hours-just after midnight in Britain. The British people are about to completely humiliate the Labour Party,” read the post shared by Mr Musk.

Wow https://t.co/ZD3uwS0f7t

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2024

Meanwhile, Mr Westwood, the owner of the Wagon and Horses pub where pints are sold for $2.90, said the Labour government’s actions looked “nothing like what was promised” in the manifesto.

“I think people have had enough, people have seen what’s happened over in America as well, and I think that’s had a knock-on effect that, actually, if people stand together and vote then we can make a change,” Mr Westwood told Express.

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Dwindling popularity

According to an Ipsos poll, the Labour government has seen its fortunes dwindle rapidly after the general elections earlier this year with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity taking a nosedive as well. Almost half (49 per cent) of the public views the Labour Party unfavourably which trails three points behind the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, two in five Britons think they are worse off since Labour came to power.

A significant majority (56 per cent) believes that Britain was heading in the wrong direction, compared to just 19 per cent who feel things are on the right track — suggesting there was widespread public pessimism.

London:

Britain’s new Labour government announced Tuesday that it will stop housing migrants on a controversial accommodation barge from next year as it tries to clear a backlog of asylum requests.

The interior ministry said the government would not renew the lease for the use of the Bibby Stockholm, moored off England’s south coast, when it runs out in January.

Designed to house up to 500 asylum seekers, the accommodation has come under persistent criticism since the previous Conservative government began moving people there last August.

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s administration said doing so would help lower the costs of housing asylum claimants, many of whom stay in hotels.

But some residents likened the barge to a prison and one man was found dead in a suspected suicide in December.

Last week, between 60 and 100 residents withdrew from meals and organised a two-hour-long sit-in during a protest to urge the government to speed up asylum procedures.

The UK has been grappling with a hefty asylum backlog, which fell to around 86,000 claimants in 2024 from a high of 132,000 last year, according to government data.

According to research group Migration Observatory, over 60 percent had waited for more than six months for an initial decision on their asylum status.

Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to clear the backlog by speeding up the process of claims.

Her department said continuing the use of the Bibby Stockholm would have cost more than £20 million ($25.8 million) next year, and that scrapping it forms part of the expected £7.7 billion of savings in asylum costs over the next 10 years.

Labour — winners of the July 4 general election by a landslide — has also dropped the Conservative government’s controversial policy to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, which had been due to start this month.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)