A petition demanding Parliament hold a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister David Cameron will not be debated by MPs, despite it exceeding the 100,000 signatures required.
At the time of writing more than 190,000 people had signed the e-petition which accuses the British Prime Minister of causing “devastation for the poorest in society for the last five years.”
The petition states: “The current Tory government has caused devastation for the poorest in society for the last 5 years. We cannot afford another 5 years of Tory rule, with the recent welfare reform that will cause nothing but immense poverty in the UK“.
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
If petitions on the parliamentary website garner 100,000 signatures or more, MPs are obliged to hold a debate on the subjects raised.
However, the House of Commons Petitions Committee has confirmed it will not be scheduling a debate on the issue.
“The Committee does not have the power to schedule debates on motions of no confidence, and the petition does not contain a specific request for action on policy,” it said on the petition page.
“It is usually more effective to start a petition calling for a specific change to government policy or the law, rather than a petition about an individual Minister.
“It is still open to MPs to seek time for a debate on this petition in the main House of Commons Chamber, if they wish to do so. However, debates on motions of no confidence are fairly rare.”
It was Cameron who introduced the e-petition initiative when he became prime minister in 201o with the aim of boosting transparency and democratic participation.
Civil servants have removed more than 6,000 “fraudulent” names were from the petition.
A spokeswoman for the House of Commons said that: “6,208 signatures which matched more than one of the criteria indicating fraud have been removed from the petition calling for a vote of no confidence in David Cameron.”
