Now appearing legend Michael Caine backs petition demanding contemporary election as signatures high 2.2MILLION… whereas Starmer dismisses critics as ‘non-Labour voters’ – however refuses to rebuke Elon Musk for wading in

Keir Starmer today dismissed demands for a fresh general election despite a Parliamentary petition hitting 2.2million signatures – and even Michael Caine wading in. 

The PM blamed ‘difficult’ decisions in the Budget for the huge backlash he has been facing as he appeared on ITV‘s This Morning.

He insisted the petition just reminded him that ‘very many people didn’t vote Labour’. ‘I’m not surprised many of them want a rerun,’ he said. 

‘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.’

The petition on the Parliament website was posted by pub owner Michael Westwood and complains that Sir Keir has ‘gone back on promises‘. It was shared by acting legend Caine today, and has also been fuelled by Elon Musk.

Downing Street refused to criticise Musk – set to play a key role in Donald Trump‘s administration – for amplifying the campaign, merely insisting the PM is ‘focused on the issues that matter most to the British people’. 

Although signatories have to say they are UK citizens or residents and provide an email and postcode, there is not thought to be any other verification – risking the chance some are not British voters.

House of Commons sources said it was satisfied most are legitimate.  

Petitions can only trigger a debate in the Westminster Hall chamber.

Polls have been showing that Labour has taken a massive hit from a torrid first four months in power. 

An internal impact assessment last week revealed that removing the winter fuel allowance from millions of pensioners could push 100,000 more into poverty.

Big retailers have been sending a message that the £25billion employer NICs raid in the Budget will cost jobs and push up prices.

Meanwhile, ministers have been hit with bad economic news, with the economy struggling and inflation higher than hoped. 

During his appearance with Cat Deeley and Andy Peters today, Sir Keir was challenged that pensioners, farmers and parents with children at private schools were furious.

He said he had made ‘tough but fair decisions’. ‘You have to make decisions,’ he said. ‘At the end of the day we inherited a broken economic… 

‘As long as they are tough but fair I think people understand that.’

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.’

Downing Street desperately tried to avoid being dragged into a war of words with Elon Musk today after the billionaire used his X social media site to highlight the petition, and branded the UK a ‘tyrannical police state’.

Asked about Mr Musk’s words, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘I’m not going to be drawn on individual comments.’

The spokesman added: ‘The Prime Minister is focused on the issues that matter most to the British people.

‘That’s what the Government was elected to deliver on – protecting our streets is obviously a key part of the Government mission and a key part of the platform the Government was elected on, as well as growing the economy, securing the borders and a number of the other priorities that we have discussed.’

No 10 insisted it was looking forward to working with US President-elect Trump and his team.

‘The Prime Minister looks forward to working with President Trump and his whole team, including Elon Musk, to work on issues, to deepen and develop the special UK-US relationship across trade, investment, security, defence – a wide range of areas the UK and US already share a deep and special relationship on and the Prime Minister looks forward to going further.’

In the latest phase of the Budget meltdown, the CBI is using its conference today to sound the alarm on the £25billion hike to employer National Insurance.

A survey of the business group’s members has found that half are now looking to cut jobs, while two-thirds are slashing recruitment plans. 

Chief executive Rain Newton-Smith insisted industries such as retail and hospitality have been pushed into ‘crisis containment’, while other sectors are now focusing on ‘damage control’ rather than investment following the hit to their bottom line.

She reminded Rachel Reeves that profit is ‘not a dirty word’ and growth is impossible unless business is allowed to prosper.

Ms Newton-Smith said firms had been caught ‘off guard’ by the NICs increase and would find it harder to ‘take a chance’ on investing, while farmers were ‘fearful’ after the inheritance tax changes. 

‘Tax rises like these must never again simply be done to business,’ she said. 

However, the Chancellor is expected to signal defiance when she appears at the conference this afternoon – arguing that there is ‘no alternative’ to increasing the tax burden. 

Businesses bore the brunt of £40billion of tax rises unveiled last month. Some firms also face rising costs as a result of an increase in the minimum wage and new employment rights. 

In her keynote speech, Ms Newton-Smith welcomed the political stability brought by Labour’s huge majority but warn that the Government’s vision for growth remains ‘in the distance’.

Ms Newton-Smith said business had been ‘caught off guard’ by the scale of the changes to employers’ NI. 

‘Profits aren’t just extra money for companies to stuff in a pillowcase,’ she said. ‘Profits are investment. When you hit profits, you hit competitiveness, you hit investment, you hit growth.’ 

Mr Westwood, who runs a pub, told the Express yesterday: ‘Not in my wildest dreams did I think this was going to take off like it has.’

Asked why he thinks the demand for a general election is resonating as much as it has, Mr Westwood said he believes voters feel ‘betrayed’ by Labour.

He explained: ‘The British public feel like they have been betrayed with the promises that were told in the lead to the election and then what has been delivered since – it looks nothing like what was promised.

‘I think people have had enough, people have seen what’s happened over in America as well, and I think that’s had a knock on effect that, actually, if people stand together and vote then we can make a change.

The government is under no obligation to comply with a petition, and they are often not even picked up by MPs to steward a debate in Westminster Hall – although in this case the volume of signatures means one could well be scheduled.

A poll last week found support for Labour has slumped to a new record post-election low.

Sir Keir‘s party is now three points behind the Tories – and just six ahead of Reform – down two on 25 per cent after a week of battles over its plan to make agriculturalists pay a low rate of inheritance tax.

It marks a dramatic fall from its post-election high of 39 per cent which gave it an 11-point lead over the Conservatives.

A second poll shows that almost three-quarters of voters now believe the UK has got worse under Sir Keir’s leadership.  

The surveys by More in Common were carried out between November 19 and 21, amid the fallout from Tuesday’s protests in Westminster led by TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson. 

Labour MPs have grown increasingly restive about the amount of time the Prime Minister has spent abroad since the election in July.

Last week’s G20 summit in Brazil marked Sir Keir’s 26th day out of the UK since July’s election, with 15 international trips to ten countries. 

The source said: ‘Much of it was unavoidable, but not all of it, and he knows it doesn’t look great to be sunning himself in Rio de Janeiro while farmers are protesting and pensioners are freezing’.

Ministers have said that the constant travelling on planes with patchy WiFi was making policy coordination difficult.