Petition calling for automatic by-elections when MP defects hits 100k signatures

There was a time when a certain Mr Farage thought this should be the case.

Over the last few days, there have been more defections from the Tories to Reform, the most high-profile of which was Robert Jenrick's.

This was followed by Andrew Rosindell also swapping one shade of a blue for another as he resigned from the Conservative Party and joined Nigel Farage's gang.

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Both Jenrick and Rosindell are sitting MPs, for Newark and Romford respectively. This has prompted calls for there to be by-elections in both constituencies, given that the people of Newark and Romford now have a representative for a party they didn't vote for.

Both MPs and Reform leader Farage have dismissed these calls, so now the public are trying to take matters into their own hands with a petition.

At the time of writing, the petition, titled 'By-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party', has racked up some 102,900 signatures.

This means it will be considered for debate in parliament.

It states: "When an MP decides they want to defect to another party a by-election should be automatically triggered to allow the constituents the opportunity have their democratic right to agree or not with their elected official."

Founder Barry Mcilhinney writes: "Regardless of political views I believe you vote for both the individual candidates and their stance on issues and the more general direction and policies of the party they stand for.

"When an MP decides that they no longer wish to be a member of the party they stood for when you voted for them the electorate should have the opportunity to also change their mind by voting in a by-election."

It was only in 2022 that Farage himself was calling on this exact thing to happen.

When Tory MP Christian Wakeford defected from the Tories to Labour that year, Farage said: "What right do members of parliament have to cross the floor, to join different parties, when they’ve been elected under a particular ticket… He should put himself up for a by-election.”

But, unsurprisingly, Farage has ditched this stance now that it benefits him for there to be no by-elections.