Rejected petition Expand the MP Recall Petition Process to include party defections

When MPs defect to another party during a Parliamentary term, they betray the trust of constituents who supported them. Voters elect MPs as local representatives, but party affiliation and manifesto commitments almost always drive that decision. Our political institutions must recognise this.

More details

The Recall of MPs Act 2015 should be reformed to include voluntary party defections as a trigger condition.

Some may ask why not instead mandate automatic by-election upon defection. While this approach has its merits, by-elections cost taxpayers an average of £240,000, so it makes sense to only hold one when there is clear constituent demand. Some MP defections, such as Lee Anderson's in 2024, reflect shifting voter preferences - in such cases, automatic by-elections can prove unnecessary.

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 this petition which calls for the same action:

Extend the Recall of MPs Act to cover MPs who change or leave political party
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/754418

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

Date submitted 17 January 2026
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.