Minister Jess Phillips admitted “things are difficult” in the UK right now as a petition calling for another general election draws significant attention.
Within 48 hours of being created on parliament’s website, the plea to return to the ballot box reached 1.6 million and continues to rise.
That far surpasses the threshold of 100,000 signatures needed for it to be debated in the Commons.
The petition says: “I believe the current Labour government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead-up to the last election.”
It comes after rows over the party’s Budget where National Insurance was hiked up for employers and inheritance tax relief for farmers was restricted.
However, a senior Labour source told HuffPost UK on Sunday that another election was not going to be called any time soon.
Speaking to Phillips this morning, LBC presenter Nick Ferrari asked: “Why do you suppose this petition to hold a fresh election has attracted 1.6 million signatures so rapidly?”
She sighed and said: “I’m not sure, you’d have to ask the petitioners.
“Look, things are difficult, I make no bones about the fact that we will have to make difficult decisions and some people won’t like that.
“I didn’t come into politics to please everybody all the time, I came into it to crack on.
“Look, it’s early days, we’ve been in power for four months. Nobody would want to see a petition like this, I can grant you – although we did just have a general election.”
Alluding to the Tories’ 14 previous years in power, she added: “There’s a huge amount of mess to clear up – and I think people are just really impatient for change, and who can blame them.”
Labour have repeatedly blamed the last government for leaving a £22bn black hole in the public finances, and therefore tried to raise £40bn through the Budget to plug the gap and help public services.
