On Monday MPs will debate a petition signed by nearly 130,000 people.
Reform’s ranks have been bolstered through the arrival of four former Conservatives (Image: Guy Bell/Shutterstock)
Reform UK has no fear of the law being changed to require MPs defecting from another party to fight a by-election. Nigel Farage’s party, which has a strong lead over its rivals in the polls, is confident it would thrash rivals in the majority of contests.
A petition calling for defections to trigger by-elections has won nearly 130,000 signatures and will be debated in Parliament on Monday. Half of Reform’s eight-strong group of MPs are former Conservatives who switched allegiance – Robert Jenrick, Suella Braverman, Danny Kruger and Andrew Rosindell.
The petition 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 to have their democratic right to agree or not with their elected official.”
A Reform spokesperson said: “Given that Reform has topped the last 230 opinion polls, with the latest data from More in Common putting us at 30%, any rule change would be irrelevant. Reform has all the momentum in British politics.
“If by-elections were triggered whenever an MP changed party, we would expect to sweep the board in most of them. The elections on May 7 will only prove this.”
Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick have quit the Conservatives for Reform UK (Image: Getty)
Before the last general election, three Conservatives crossed the floor to join Labour – Natalie Elphicke, Dan Poulter and Christian Wakeford.
There is no requirement for a defector to stand down and fight a by-election but this happened twice when Tories left to join Mr Farage’s former Ukip party. Former Tory Douglas Carswell was re-elected as the Ukip MP for Clacton – the present political home of Mr Farage – with a majority of 12,404 in October 2014; fellow ex-Conservative Mark Reckless was re-elected the next month as the Ukip MP for Rochester and Strood with a majority of 2,920.
Britain’s most famous defector is Winston Churchill. He left the Tories in May 1904 to join the Liberal party. He was then elected as a “Constitutionalist” in the 1924 general election and became Chancellor in the Conservative Government.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage (left) with Douglas Carswell following his defection (Image: PA)
The Government stated in response to the petition: “It is an established constitutional principle that at UK general elections voters cast their vote for individual candidates, and not the political party they represent.
“When a Member of Parliament decides to change their party affiliation, it is for the MP to decide whether to continue to sit in the House of Commons (as a representative of their new political party or as an independent MP) or to stand down from their seat to trigger a by-election and, if they wish, seek re-election.
“There are no plans to make changes to the current arrangements.”
The constituencies with the highest number of signature supporting the petition’s call for mandatory by-elections were those which have seen Tory MPs switch to Reform – Mrs Braverman’s Fareham and Waterlooville (937), Mr Jenrick’s Newark (834), Mr Rosindell’s Romford (603) and Mr Kruger’s East Wilsthire (545).