Starmer shrugs off Badenoch's petition jibe at PMQs

Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed a jibe by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch over an online petition calling for another general election, as the pair clashed over Labour's tax rises.

Badenoch said the petition on Parliament's website showed "two million people asking him to go" after Labour's first Budget since 2010.

She added that the prime minister should resign "if he wants to know what Conservatives would do" instead.

Sir Keir shrugged off her attack, saying there had already been a "massive petition" in the summer, when voters returned Labour to power.

The petition, started by a West Midlands publican who voted Conservative at July's general election, has now gathered over 2.7m signatures.

It calls for another general election to take place, accusing the government of having "gone back on the promises" it made during the campaign.

The petition will not lead to another general election but it will be debated by MPs, having has passed the threshold of 100,000 signatures that guarantees a debate.

It also offered Badenoch a way to attack the government, as she faced off with Sir Keir at Prime Minister's Questions for only the third time since becoming Tory leader earlier this month.

She added that rises to employers' National Insurance (NI) at last month's Budget had prompted calls from business that they would have to cut jobs.

The tax increase was not in Labour's election manifesto, but ministers claim it is needed to fill a "black hole" in the public finances left by the previous government, and raise money for public services.

"There's a petition out there, two million people asking him to go," she told MPs.

"He's the one who doesn't know how things work. It is not government that creates growth, it is business," she added.

The PM replied: "She talks about a petition, we had a massive petition on the 4th of July in this country.

"We spent years taking our party from a party of protest to a party of government, they are hurtling in the opposite direction."

Badenoch also challenged the prime minister to repeat a pledge from Chancellor Rachel Reeves not to make further increases to taxes or borrowing after the Budget.

Sir Keir declined to restate the pledge, adding he was "not going to write the next five years of Budgets”.

And he accused Badenoch of making "unfunded commitments" by backing extra spending, whilst not saying whether she would reverse the NI hike if she were in government.

The Conservatives, he told MPs, had “nothing to offer except complaints”.

Labour got 9.7 million votes at July's general election, which saw it return to power with a huge majority and 411 seats in the House of Commons.

However, the party only received 35% share of the vote - the lowest won by a single party government since the end of World War Two - after Conservative support collapsed.