Petition · past parliament

Hold a General Election in 2016

Closed 177,014 signatures

What the petition asks

The General Public were purposefully misguided before the 2015 election.The lies David Cameron told before the election have now been widely acknowledged as such, and it is only reasonable that the public should be allowed to vote with full knowledge about his true agenda in 2016.
Cameron has reneged on numerous promises he made before the 2015 election. It is evident that the education system and the NHS are being adversely affected by the ignorance of the government and Prime Minister. I should add that in proposing this petition I was informed that a similar petition already exists; however, it doesn't appear that this is actually the case: The one that came up as 'similar' has been rejected for reasons unknown to me. This is, therefore, a new petition.

Government response · 14 April 2016

The accusations made about the Government and Prime Minister in this petition are wrong, and the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act means no Government can call an early general election any more anyway.

The Government and Prime Minister have never sought to mislead the public. Nonetheless, the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, which came into force in 2011 under the Coalition Government, removed the power to set the general election date, and therefore to call an early general election, from the Government and gave a power to the House of Commons to call an early general election in certain circumstances.

An early general election can only be called under the Act if either a motion (as worded in section 2(2) of the Act) that there shall be an early parliamentary general election is passed by the House of Commons with at least two thirds in favour of the motion; or if a motion of no confidence (as worded in section 2(4) of the Act) is passed by the House of Commons and the House does not pass a motion of confidence (as worded in section 2(5) of the Act) in the Government or an alternative Government within 14 days. Aside from these triggers there is no way to replace the Government through an early General Election.

Cabinet Office

Timeline

29 Feb 2016 Petition opened for signatures
5 Apr 2016 Passed 10,000 signatures, requiring a government response
9 Apr 2016 Passed 100,000 signatures, qualifying for a parliamentary debate
14 Apr 2016 Government responded
29 Aug 2016 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 177,014
Status Closed
Opened 29 Feb 2016
Closed 29 Aug 2016
Response 14 Apr 2016

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.