Almost one in 20 people in East Lancashire have signed a petition calling for a snap General Election due to 'unhappiness' with the Labour government.

The petition, set up on Parliament’s website accuses Labour of breaking its promises and demands a General Election, just four months into Labour's rule.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has dismissed the petition and said he understands some people may be angry as he is "taking the difficult decisions first" and that not everyone voted Labour.

However he pointed out Labour won a landslide 174-seat majority in July's national poll, with almost three million more votes than the Conservatives, and was given a clear mandate by the British people.

Set up last week, the petition has been promoted by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and X owner Elon Musk.

The form's figures make it the third most-signed since 2010.

Any petition that has more than 100,000 signatures is subject to a debate in Parliament, but it would not trigger a new election.

With Labour's huge majority, it is extremely unlikely the petition would be successful in its aim.

Residents in the Ribble Valle tops the East Lancashire percentage charts, having voted Labour for the first time since 1991 at the July election.

Around 5,800 people from the area have signed the petition, just under six per cent of the constituency's electorate.

In Andy MacNae’s seat Darwen and Rossendale, which he took from Tory Jake Berry who had held it since 2005, 5.5 per cent of the electorate have signed the petition.

When asked about the petition on ITV’s This Morning, Sir Keir said: “There will be plenty of people who didn't want us in the first place... my focus is on the decisions that I have to make every day.

"I’m not surprised, quite frankly, as we’re doing the tough stuff and there are plenty of people who say, 'well I’m impacted, I don’t like it'.

"But we’ve got to make the big calls on the NHS and on schools that are important for the here and now and for the future."

In Blackburn, which ditched Labour for Gaza-centric independent Adnan Hussain, has seen 2.7 per cent of people sign.

Around 2.75 million people have signed the petition, but it is not the most signed in recent history.

In 2019, a petition calling for Brexit to be cancelled received 6.1 million signatures, three years after a call for a second Brexit referendum garnered 4.2 million names.

The petition reads: "I would like there to be another general election.

"I believe the current Labour government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead-up to the last election."

Speaking to ITV, Sir Keir 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. But that isn't how our system works."