Nigel Farage has used a debate on the petition calling for a new general election to warn both Labour and the that the old order is ‘breaking up’.
The Reform UK leader intervened after a petition accusing Labour of breaking its election promises hit three million signatures, forcing it to be debated in Parliament.
The petition was started in November by publican Michael Westwood, and surged to one million supporters in the space of just a couple of days.
Any petition that surpasses 100,000 signatures is debated in Westminster Hall.
Mr Westwood was congratulated for his petition, and engaging voters in the democratic system as a result of the storm created by it.
Liberal Democrat Jamie Stone described the support for his call to arms as “encouraging”, thanking the publican creator of the e-petition and suggesting the huge support indicates that his demand for a fresh general election is widely held across Britain.
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Nigel Farage warned Labour and the Tories that the old order is breaking down (Image: Parliament Live)
used the debate to warn Labour that while their broken promises so far have tanked its support, they could fall further if they continue to betray voters on immigration.
He boasted that Clacton had seen the third-highest level of support for Mr Westwood’s petition of any constituency.
Mr Farage argued: “The broader problem is the economy as a whole: the economy works on confidence, people borrow money and lend money according to confidence in each other.”
“And with the PM and the Chancellor, we’ve got two people who look like they’re going to a family funeral every day. There is an air of miserablism! The Prime Minister is the complete opposite to Tony Blair – this isn’t ‘things can only get better’, it’s ‘things can only get worse’!”
But he warned that the economy is secondary to legal immigration, adding that if Labour doesn’t bring down net migration figures sharply and rapidly: “Confidence in their party will fall further.”
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The petition has had over 3m signatures (Image: House of Commons)
He concluded: “I think the whole system is in need of fundamental change. This is a symptom of a much bigger cry for a different kind of politics in the UK.”
“You can all con yourself as much as you like, the old two party system is breaking up before our eyes.”
Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi argued claimed that the petition debate was ‘playing party politics’ and had been ‘hijacked’.
The long-serving Labour MP told Westminster Hall that the petition’s level of support was down to “misinformation” and “foreign interference”.
This claim sparked loud laughter from opposition MPs.
In late November, the House of Commons told the Express that they had “no concerns” with the e-petition, in response to online claims that it had been hijacked by people in other countries.
A spokesman said: “The system has a range of automated and manual checks in place to identify fraudulent signatures. We are confident in the robustness of the system.”
Many Tory MPs raised the issue of the cutting of Winter Fuel Payments and the Family Farms Tax, neither of which were spelt out by Labor ahead of the general election and which took millions of voters by surprise.
Damian Hinds suggested Labour MPs and activists had been similarly heartbroken by the reality of the new Government, joking that they may regret choosing ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ as their election anthem.