Rejected petition That a by-election be triggered immediately if a serving MP changes party.

Hold a by-election immediately if a serving MP changes party affliation.

More details

When voting in a general election, one considers which party and which individual candidate would best serve the constituency and, probably, the country as a whole. I suspect that in a general election, the party counts for more than the individual. There has recently been a spate of MPs changing party mid-term and joining parties which their constituents *did not choose*.

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 26 January 2026
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