Black Country election petition creator speaks of broken promises, lies and wanting to get his point across

The creator of an election request petition which has seen more than two million signatures has spoken about why he started it and what he hoped to achieve from it.

Mike Westwood from Gornal started the petition four days ago as a way of demanding a new general election for the UK.

Mr Westwood, who said he voted for the Conservatives at the General Election in July, said he'd started the petition after growing sick of what he called "doomsday" statements from the Government.

He said: "I was getting sick of all the doomsday material coming from the Government as everything was really negative and they were talking about how there was going to be no money to spend.

"Given the lies they told to get into power and the things they've done since coming into power, I just thought why not do this as the thought of not speaking up and trying to get my point across didn't work for me.

"That's why I went on the site and started the petition, just to see if anyone else would agree with me."

Mr Westwood, who runs the Five Ways Pub in Gornal, said he was dumbstruck about how many people had signed the petition, including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and said that while he didn't expect it to go anywhere, he was pleased to have got his point across.

He said: "It's amazing and the fact that people feel like I do and can put their signature on there and agree with me is great.

"I don't expect it to go to a general election because there's no way Starmer will let that happen and I'll be shocked if it even gets debated in Westminster as I doubt he'll give it the light of day.

"He was very dismissive of it on This Morning and it just feels like two million people are going to be ignored and it just shows the arrogance of the man."

Sir Kier Starmer, appearing on ITV's Good Morning Britain on Monday morning, said he wasn't surprised about the petition, but said he was focussing on the day to day decisions.

He said: "Look, I remind myself that very many people didn't vote Labour at the last election.

"I'm not surprised that many of them want a rerun. That isn't how our system works. 

"There will be plenty of people who didn't want us in, in the first place.

"So, what my focus is on is the decisions that I have to make every day."