Rejected petition If an MP defects to another political party an immediate by-election is called

When an MP defects to a different political party (ie not the one they stood for at the last election), an immediate by-election should be called in the MP’s constituency.

The law should be changed to make this happen.

More details

When an MP defects, they no longer stand for the manifesto on which they were elected and therefore no longer represent their constituents.

It is a personal choice of the MP to change party and their constituents should be allowed to vote on whether they agree or disagree with the choice and agree with the values of the new party. An immediate by-election should be called allowing constituents the choice of which party represents them.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign the following petition, which calls for similar action:

By-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/737660

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 15 January 2026
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