Rejected petition Legislate for automatic by-elections when a standing MP decides to defect.

Bring in legislation that will trigger an automatic by-election when a standing MP decides to defect from the party they represented when elected, to another political party during the life of that parliament.

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MPs are elected based on the political party that they stand to represent at an election, and its policies. If they consequently decide they no longer agree with the policies of that political party and wish to defect to another, then there should automatically be a by-election to allow the people who voted for them, to decide whether or not they are still a suitable MP. Until that by-election they should continue to act for the party for which they were elected or stand down immediately.

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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