A North East MP has called for an immediate general election after more than half a million people signed a petition.
Catherine McKinnell, who is chair of the petitions committee, led a debate at Westminster Hall on Monday afternoon. The Labour MP for Newcastle North highlighted a online petition which calls for an immediate general election.
The petition, which has been signed by more than £634,000 people, calls for a general election to end the "chaos" of the current government. It was created by Darrin Charlesworth in July this year.
Ms McKinnell told the debate that she was speaking on the behalf of the petitioners who would like to hear views on the important motion. She said the petition had been signed by more than 632,000 people and was going up by around 1,000 signatures per hour.
She said: "The numbers make this one of the most popular petitions considered by the petitions committee to date.
"The petition is very clear in it's demand. It states 'Call an immediate general election to end the chaos of the current Government so that the people can decide who can lead up through the unprecedented crisis threatening the UK.
"I want to pay tribute to Darrin Charlesworth, who set up this petition, and I suspect little did he know that the chaos that led him to start this petition would only develop further into the mini-budget U-turn, the market turmoil, the sacking of the now ex-chancellor and the extraordinary scenes we saw this morning of the new chancellor reversing the entire platform the prime minister stood on. Or maybe he had the foresight to see how much worse it could get. There were plenty of warnings and sadly it's not over."
Ms McKinnell said scenario facing the UK when the petition was started included the horror of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, inflation reaching an 40 year high, unaffordable fuel bills, record backlogs in our NHS and a looming winter of struggle ahead. She said: "Unfortunately, weeks on, with a new prime minister, and now a second chancellor, things have only for worse."
The North East MP told the debate that, weeks into office, any semblance of authority that Prime Minister Liz Truss may have had has been "shattered", along with confidence in her and the Government's ability to govern.
In relation to the mini-budget, she said: "The then chancellor proclaimed he wanted to bet big on the British economy. We've seen just how reckless that was and the question remains, who gave them permission to gamble in such a way with out public finances? How on earth was this allowed to happen?
"While the package has now been scraped, the damage to the UK will be long-lasting with high borrowing costs, higher mortgages and damage to our reputation for years to come. It will never be forgotten."
Brendan Clarke-Smith, speaking on behalf of the Government, said: "The nation and the world faces the challenges of not just Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine but also recovering from the covid-19 pandemic. And Putin's war has caused a global economic crisis with interest rates rising around the world and I'm sure nobody would like a general election in this country more than Vladimir Putin.
"Families and businesses are feeling the impact across our country, from the cost of the supermarket shop to their energy bills, as honourable members have already mentioned here today of course. And in these tough times the Government is therefore taking decisive action to get Britain moving.
"This Government's focus now is on bringing economic and political stability to the country and it's this that will lower interest rates and restore confidence in sterling. We cannot afford to allow any drift to delay in this mission and that is why the last thing we need now is a general election."
During her summing up of the debate, Ms McKinnell said: "We're here to serve the public and the public can decide. They can vote to decide to put this Government back in or they can choose something different. Fundamentally this should be a choice for the public and not us in this room."
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