The founder of the viral petition to ‘call a general election’ backed by Elon Musk, Michael Caine and Nigel Farage has outlined why he started it on ITV this morning.
Michael Westwood, a pub landlord who runs three pubs, started the petition because he felt lied to by Labour after breaking many of its pre-election promises.
Westwood said: “Within five months of being in power I’ve never seen a political party make such a mess. In five months. And we’ve got them for five years.
“All I wanted to do was to get this petition out there to say the current government and previous governments have lied to get into power.
“Should these people not be held accountable.”
What are the promises Labour has broken? GB News has generated five of the most contentious Labour betrayals that have seen 2.7million people Westwood’s petition.
Michael Westwood told Tom and Miriam he did not expect the petition to grow in popularity to such an extent GB NEWSFarm Tax Raid
No promise has generated more negative coverage for Labour than its assurance to farmers they would not change inheritance tax.
Steve Reed, Defra Secretary, told the Country Land and Business Association’s Rural Business conference: “Victoria [CLA President] you asked me last year if Labour would raise APR [inheritance tax]. I said no. That was our position at the time.”
An embarrassing video of Sir Keir Starmer also resurfaced showing the then Leader of the Opposition telling farmers ‘they deserve better’ and that ‘losing a farm is not like losing any other business, it can’t come back.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves then slapped farmers with 20 per cent death duties on assets over £1million, something hundreds of asset-rich farms will be unable to pay out of paltry farm incomes.
Starmer, Reed and Reeves blamed the Tories for ‘covering up’ a £22billion black hole, forcing Labour to make tough decisions like this one to plug the gap.
But critics say the £500million a year by 2030 the Treasury hope to raise is a ‘drop in the ocean’ capable of funding the NHS for one day and not worth the misery it will inflict on farmers.
Not raising taxes on working people
Another Labour pre-election claim that has been heavily attacked was ‘not to raise taxes on working people.’
While Labour did not raise income tax, national insurance or VAT, Reeves did hike Employer’s National Insurance hike to 15 per cent and slashed the threshold for paying it from £9,100 per year to £5,000.
Small business owners will be hit by the move as the cost of employing staff rises.
Critics argue small business owners, often hardworking individuals on small salaries who have no employment benefits regular jobs offer, are ‘working people’, however.
This is just one of a number of ways experts have highlighted Reeves’ budget will tax working people, albeit indirectly.
For example, by freezing income tax thresholds until 2028, Labour will bring more people into higher tax brackets as wages rise with inflation.
Farmers protesting Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Autumn budget
PA
Winter Fuel Payments
While Starmer did not promise anything specific on winter fuel payments for pensioners, he fiercely attacked the Conservatives for letting pensioners get cold during his opposition years.
As Leader of the Opposition, he described pensioners using warm hubs as “evidence” of the Tories’ failure to protect people in 2022.
During an interview, Sir Keir said it was “serious and tragic” people needed to use warm banks and that it was “powerful evidence of the failure of [the government]” and that “we shouldn’t need that in 21st century Britain”.
He has since been accused of ‘pure hypocrisy’ as one of his first moves was to slash winter fuel payments for up to nine million pensioners, leaving many old folks choosing between heating and heating.
Increasing borrowing
Labour promised not to increase borrowing before the election, but Chancellor Reeves has fiddled the UK’s finance rules to do just that.
The move is expected to allow the Chancellor to raise £50billion, something Labour want to fund the NHS, schools and pay rises for unions like train drivers.
Ms Reeves denied that she was effectively fiddling the rules to get around her manifesto pledge not to increase income tax, VAT or national insurance.
Her massive shakeup of the UK finances was not endorsed by the OBR, however.
The independent financial watchdog predicted growth flatlining after an initial sugar rush cash injection, a blow when Labour inherited the fastest growing economy in the G7.
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University tuition fees increase
Labour also recently announced the first rise in university tuition fees since 2017 to £9,535 per year.
This came after Sir Keir pledged to ‘support the abolition of tuition fees and invest in lifelong learning’ during his campaign to become Labour leader.
Starmer is not alone in his U-turn.
Bridget Phillipsen, the Education Secretary, wrote a piece for the Times last year promising university leavers a Labour government could ‘reduce the monthly repayments for every single new graduate’.
She adding that she hoped to ‘[put] money back in people’s pockets when they most need it’.
Four months into power, Phillipsen has asked students to pay more, not less.
These five broken promises are just some of the reasons Michael Westwood started his petition for a general election.
Commentators say it is clearly cutting through as 2.7million people- almost the population of Wales- have signed it.
The pub landlord confirmed he had had a call from Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK and principal challenger to many Labour incumbents across the UK.
Westwood said: “I had a call yesterday from Nigel Farage saying we think you’re doing great work try and keep it up.”