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If an MP defects to another political party an immediate by-election is called

Submitted on Thursday 15th January 2026

Rejected on Wednesday 4th February 2026

Current status: Rejected

Rejection code: duplicate (see below for details)

Petition Action

If an MP defects to another political party an immediate by-election is called

Petition Details

When an MP defects to a different political party (ie not the one they stood for at the last election), an immediate by-election should be called in the MP’s constituency.

The law should be changed to make this happen.

Additional Information

When an MP defects, they no longer stand for the manifesto on which they were elected and therefore no longer represent their constituents.

It is a personal choice of the MP to change party and their constituents should be allowed to vote on whether they agree or disagree with the choice and agree with the values of the new party. An immediate by-election should be called allowing constituents the choice of which party represents them.


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This petition was rejected

The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:

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
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/737660

Have your say on this petition!

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