Rejected petition If a member of parliament changes party allegiance, a bi-election is held.

A bi-election should be held in a constituency if it's Member of Parliament changes party allegiance during their term.
This could be moving from one party to another, joining a party from being an independent or becoming an independent.

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The country is becoming increasingly partisan with constituent's votes often being decided by the party, so MPs changing party mid-term goes against this. The party whip will also change this MP's voting in the commons.
This can create disappointment with many voters and can feel they are being misrepresented.

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 16 January 2026
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