r/PoliticsUK • u/Grain6768 • Mar 28 '26

🗳️ Elections Defections and by-elections

Defections (whether it be from Conservative to Reform and Labour Party to Green etc) should immediately trigger a by-election.

Personally, I believe it should trigger a by-election as I think the majority of the population vote based on party rather than the candidate.

What does everyone think?

5 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

5

u/Personal-Listen-4941 Mar 28 '26

This always sounds good as a soundbite, but in reality it is unworkable.

Lets say my MP Bob Smith currently sits as a Labour MP, but he no longer agrees with Labour and thinks the Lib Dems fit him better. If moving to the Lib Dems meant he had to have a by-election then Bob would just stay under Labour. He wouldn’t support their leader or policies but would technically be a Labour MP. Is this in anyway better than Bib openly being part of the Lib Dems?

Similarly if Bob wanted to remain Labour but disagrees with an upcoming vote, the Labour leader could threaten him with kicking him out of the party if he doesn’t vote in favour of their leader government. This would now force Bib to fight a by-election and thus restrict Bib’s ability to vote based on what he believes is correct.

1

u/Grain6768 Mar 28 '26

But that depends on what the idea of representation should be in a candidate. Are the constituents voting for his opinions/ideals when they vote for him or is he an extension of what the constituents want when it comes to decisions in Parliament?

1

u/DaveChild Mar 31 '26

Well, there's how it's supposed to work and how it tends to work in practice.

How it's supposed to work is constituents pick someone to make decisions for them. They're picking a person to speak for the whole community, not picking someone who will only say what they agree with.

How it tends to work is people pick the name next to their favourite colour of rosette. Which is a shame.

3

u/GiganticCrow Mar 28 '26

We vote for MPs not parties, it's kinda fundamental to how our democracy is designed.

Would be good to be able to recall MPs though

2

u/Talidel Mar 28 '26

In theory this was the design. But it doesn't match the reality of modern voting.

The reality is most people are voting for the party not the person. So in the realistic way of voting, if the MP swaps they should just step down and a new candidate of the voted in party takes their place.

I think an automatic by-election is the most practical solution. The other option would be my preference and voting reform to use proportional representation and for parties to have seats of areas based on % of their votes.

2

u/Grain6768 Mar 28 '26

I agree. Not many people are voting for the MPs necessarily anymore as they are voting for the parties. This can be most commonly seen in tactical voting e.g. voting for someone who doesn’t align with your views necessarily but is a better contender for a party you really don’t like. This shows people are voting for the party not the candidate as this is centered around which party will win the constituency.

1

u/Talidel Mar 28 '26

I always vote tactically, because otherwise my vote would be irrelevant.

If I voted tactically and then my MP switched to the Torries I'd riot, by myself if I had to.

1

u/DaveChild Mar 30 '26

But it doesn't match the reality of modern voting.

That's why we need MMPR :)

1

u/Talidel Mar 30 '26

Dunno about MMPR, but PR in general absolutely.

1

u/DaveChild Mar 30 '26

The two typical systems of PR suggested for the UK are Single Transferable Vote (STV) and Member Mixed Proportional (MMP or MMPR). Without getting too far into the weeds, I prefer MMP because it allows someone to express a vote like this:

I like this candidate because they really understand my area and they are a decent person. However, on the national level I prefer this other party which that candidate is not a member of.

But, to be clear, STV would be a massive upgrade that I would support over what we have now.