Hundreds of thousands of people sign petition demanding an immediate general election

A petition calling for Prime Minister Liz Truss to call a general election to put an end to the current chaos that has enveloped the United Kingdom has earned more than 370,000 signatures and keeps climbing.

You may have noticed that the UK is in a bit of a state right now. There is a major cost of living crisis that has people fearing if they can get through the winter, Vladimir Putin is threatening to spark a nuclear war every other week and the new prime minister Liz Truss sent the economy into a tailspin after her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced a mini-budget which saw the pound's value plummet and saw inflation rates skyrocket.

It's left Truss in a bit of a conundrum as a u-turn would make her look politically weak but she can't exactly stick with this budget either. One option could be a general election and if the Tories won she would have the mandate to go forward with her plans, however, new polling shows that if an election was called today it could completely wipe out the Tories for good.

A YouGov poll released on Thursday showed that Labour has surged to an astonishing 33-point lead over the Tories - the highest the party has had in 20 years. Were this to come true then it would result in Labour having 564 seats in the Commons and the Tories would have just three, leaving Scotland's SNP as the official opposition.

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Sensing that a downfall for the Tories is on the horizon, people have jumped onto a petition that was actually launched before the mini-budget was announced on September 23rd. The petition titled "Call an immediate general election to end the chaos of the current government" has at the time of writing received more than 290,000 signatures, which is more than the total number of people who voted for Truss to become prime minister.

The petition was created by Darrin Charlesworth. The description for the petition reads as follows: "Call an immediate general election so that the people can decide who should lead us through the unprecedented crises threatening the UK.

"The chaos engulfing the UK government is unprecedented. Over 40 ministers resigned leaving departments without leadership during cost of living, energy and climate crises.

"War rages in Ukraine; the Northern Ireland Protocol has further damaged our relationship with Europe; recession looms; the UK itself may cease to exist as Scotland seeks independence. This is the greatest set of challenges we have seen in our lifetimes. Let the people decide who leads us through this turmoil."

The petition surpassed its 100,000 benchmarks to ensure it will be debated in the Commons. As with most petitions, anything suggested rarely comes to pass but it is a further sign that there is a growing resentment towards the Tories policies and their handling of the current problems facing the UK.

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