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When Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless defected to Nigel Farage’s UKIP party in 2014, both men resigned their seats and fought by-elections.
At the following press conference, Farage made much of the principle of resigning one’s seat to force a by-election after defecting, describing it as “brave and noble.”
In 2022, when Conservative Christian Wakeford MP defected from the Conservatives to Labour, Farage doubled down on this view, saying it was “disgraceful” not to call a by-election. “It is a complete insult to voters for MPs to have the arrogance to think that it’s them they voted for,” he told GB News.
But when MPs debated a 130,000-strong petition calling for by-elections for MPs who defect on Monday night, Farage and his Reform MPs – including several high-profile Conservative defectors – were nowhere to be seen.
Following former Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson’s switch to Reform ahead of the 2024 general election, Farage decided not to require by-elections for his switchers.
None of the subsequent wave of Conservative defectors — including sitting MPs Danny Kruger, Robert Jenrick, Andrew Rosindell and Suella Braverman — have been asked to seek fresh mandates from their constituents.
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According to campaign group Best for Britain’s tracker, there have been 121 total defections from the Conservatives to Reform (including councillors and senior staffers) so far. Very few with seats to defend appear to have done the “noble” thing and called by-elections under their new ticket.
Reform has also been actively soliciting further defections. Farage set a deadline of the 7th May local elections for any elected politician wishing to join the party, writing in The Telegraph: “Now is the time to decide: do you want to go down with the failed politics of the past, or go forward with Reform UK — the party of hope, optimism and change?”
In a Westminster Hall debate on the petition on Monday, Minister and Labour chair Anna Turley told MPs: “While I personally share the view of, I think, many of the petitioners from certain constituencies that defecting from the Conservatives to Reform is an awful thing to do—I notice that none of the hon. Members concerned is here today—I am not sure that it reaches the bar of requiring a by-election.”
She pointed, however, to the “whopping” 23 by-elections in just four and a half years prior to 2024.
“Those by-elections were caused by lobbying scandals, tractor videos, sexual misconduct, bullying—a horrible track record of MPs falling short of the standards that the public rightly expect of them. It is absolutely right that, in such circumstances, we have by-elections and the public are able to get rid of their MPs in that way.”
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She and other MPs in the (sparsely-attended) debate – save for Conservative MP Robbie Moore – backed the view “long-standing constitutional principle” in Britain, most famously put forward by Edmund Burke, that MPs should “not simply be a delegate of either party or populist opinion.” A by-election on the basis of a defection would “undermine that principle,” Turley said.
Turley argued that if MPs must lose their seat the moment they leave their party, “we would fundamentally alter the nature of our democracy. We would also shift from a system in which an MP’s first responsibility is to their constituents, to one where, once elected, they are accountable to their party’s leaders in Westminster.”
This would, she said, “not make our parliamentary democracy stronger.”
There is a limited mechanism to remove MPs during the course of a Parliament. Under the Recall of MPs Act 2015, by-elections are triggered by custodial sentences, suspension from the House, or false expenses claims.
“Some have argued that we should add defection to that list, but I strongly urge against that. The core philosophy of recall is that it is triggered by conduct, not a change in values or even, dare I say it, political ambition,” Turley added.
The Labour Chair, like most parties the beneficiaries of occasional defections, said it is “part of political life.”
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Lib Dem parliamentary leader Lisa Smart MP did not throw her weight behind automatic by-elections for MPs who defect, but instead said: “The disillusionment that voters are experiencing points to something larger—a fundamental problem with how our democratic system currently works.”
“The Liberal Democrats believe that our political system needs fundamental change to restore the trust that voters have lost. First, we need to change the way we elect our MPs.”
She described Reform UK as “a scrapyard for the very people who were the establishment and failed.”
“Although by-elections for those who defect may not be mandated, the voters in those seats have the ultimate power—the power of their vote, come the next election—and I hope they will use it at every available opportunity,” Smart added.
However, Conservative backbencher Robbie Moore, backed the petitioners’ calls. The party is perhaps burnt by the many recent Tory defections to Reform UK.
“I am strongly of the view that if an individual Member of Parliament associated with a political party decides to change course and stand for a different political party —crosses the Floor of the House—an automatic by-election should be triggered, which ultimately gives their constituents the right to choose,” Moore said.
He added: “Politics is about trust…It is vital that our democratic system holds us to account for the promises on which we as individuals associated with a political party were elected, the platform on which we chose to stand for election, and ultimately the manifesto commitments that we stood by.”
Several MPs were concerned of the risk that if by-elections were automatic when an MP changed party, this would be an incentive for whips to strip rebellious MPs of the whip – strengthening their hand when trying to keep party MPs in line.
However, it would not be impossible for by-election legislation to exclude the case of MPs losing the party whip. There would however be a strong incentive for MPs who wished to change party to simply do it unofficially – towing their new party’s line without formally changing their political allegience. In fairness, many Reform-curious Conservative MPs already seem to be doing that.
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