Rejected petition: Close the Recall Loophole: Stop MPs Escaping Accountability Through Re-Election
Rejected on
Reform parliamentary standards and recall laws so MPs cannot evade consequences for serious, deliberate misconduct by relying on a loyal personal or political following to repeatedly secure re-election after recall. Create proportionate criminal sanctions and disqualification.
The recall system can be ineffective where a highly popular or populist MP has supporters willing to overlook serious misconduct because they prioritise the MP’s political aims. A recalled MP can currently stand again in the resulting by-election.
Parliament should create proportionate criminal sanctions and disqualification for serious, deliberate misconduct, preventing repeated recall and re-election from defeating accountability and allowing the same misconduct to recur indefinitely.
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.
We're not sure exactly what you'd like the Government or Parliament to do. There is no loophole for MPs to evade a criminal investigation or prosecution through a by-election.
You could start a new petition explaining clearly what you would like the Government or Parliament to do.There are currently some open petitions which have some relevance to the topic of your petition, that you may wish to sign:
Ban MPs who have resigned from standing in resulting by-election for same party
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/776397Prevent MPs who resign their seat from standing for re-election for 12 months
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/776390MPs who resign from the HoC should be banned from standing for five years
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/776574Disqualify resigned MPs from standing until 4 years after next General Election
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/776584We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.