Carol Vorderman today led a Left-wing backlash to a high-profile petition calling for a general election – by demanding a second EU referendum takes place at the same time.

The ‘Call a General Election’ petition on the Parliament website has passed more than two million signatures after racking up an extra 100,000 every hour.

Posted by pub owner Michael Westwood and shared by hundreds of social media users including the actor Michael Caine, it complains Sir Keir Starmer has ‘gone back on promises’.

Former Countdown host Ms Vorderman was among those mocking the online protest, writing on X: ‘Right wingers stamping their feet saying call a General Election.

‘Tell you what…. Let’s have a Rejoin the EU referendum at the same time? Six million people signed that petition.’

Appearing on ITV’s This Morning, the prime minister blamed ‘difficult’ decisions in the Budget for the huge backlash against his government.

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 the first place.

‘So, what my focus is on is the decisions that I have to make every day.’

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 of the signatories may actually be based abroad.

However, a source told MailOnline today that the bulk of the overseas signatures come from countries with large expat populations, such as Australia, Ireland, France and Canada.

Podcast host Jon Sopel shared a post claiming that the petition included signatories using fake postcodes on X and asked: ‘If a petition like this can be so easily manipulated, what is its point?’

Petitions that hit 100,000 signatures can trigger a debate in Westminster Hall.

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 economy…

‘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.

Mr Westwood, who runs a pub, told the Express: ‘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.