Almost three million people have signed a petition calling for a general election with thousands from Oldham postcodes.

A public petition is gaining widespread traction this week with more than two million signatures at the time of writing backing calls for a general election.

The petition argues there should be another general election as "the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election".

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Thousands of people in Oldham have backed the calls as data shows some 4,542 signatures have come from Oldham East and Saddleworth postcodes, representing 4.16 per cent of 109,000 of MP Debbie Abrahams' constituency. 

As for Jim McMahon's constituency in Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton, 3,554 people have signed the petition, making up 3.173 per cent of 112,000 constituents.

Nearby in Ashton-under-Lyne where Labour's Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner MP sits, 3,999 signatures have been added representing 3.999 per cent of 100,000 constituents.

Elsewhere across the country, some of the constituencies with the highest number of signatories appear to be Tory-held seats.

More than 7,100 people (7.327 per cent of constituents) have signed it in Brentwood and Ongar where shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart is MP, while 6,500 (7.11 per cent) have signed it in Tory chief whip Rebecca Harris’s Castle Point constituency.

Despite the rapidly growing number of signatures, it is far from the largest petition received through the Parliament website, or the one which has seen the most rapid take-up.

In 2019, some 6.1 million people signed a petition calling for the revocation of Article 50 and for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union, four million of whom did so in 48 hours.

The second most-signed petition gained 4.1 million signatures.

The 2016 petition called for a second referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union following the Brexit vote.

However, the figures come as many warn the petition is vulnerable to manipulation, with users reportedly adding their signatures multiple times and from all across the world.

An Ashton postcode (OL6 6HD) was one of several to feature on a social media callout to non-UK residents, including citizens of America, Israel and Europe, urging them to sign the petition. 

American signatories may have also been made aware of the petition by Elon Musk, the businessman and ally of President-elect Donald Trump who owns the social media site, X, formerly Twitter.

He shared the petition on X, claiming “the people of Britain have had enough of a tyrannical police state”.

While the petition rules state the Government will consider all petitions that surpass the 100,000 benchmark for a debate, Prime Minster Keir Starmer has ruled out calling another general election.

When asked about the petition on ITV's This Morning programme on Monday (November 25), Sir Keir said he is "not surprised" some people who did not support Labour might want a second poll.

He said: "Look, I remind myself that very many people didn’t vote Labour at the last election.

“I’m not surprised that many of them want a re-run. 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.”

He characterised decisions taken so far by his Government as “tough but fair”.

Michael Westwood, the man who started the petition, has confirmed he voted Conservative at the summer election.

He told Talk TV he did not know if this would be the case again, adding: “One thing’s for certain, I wouldn’t be voting Labour.”

Among those sharing the petition online was retired actor Sir Michael Caine, who has been critical of Labour governments in the past.

The petition calling for another general election is open for signatures until May 2025.