In January 2026 several senior Conservatives moved to Reform UK. The former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, no longer an MP, joined on 12 January. Three days later Kemi Badenoch dismissed Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet and removed the whip, saying she had evidence that he was planning to defect; he joined Reform the same evening. The Romford MP Andrew Rosindell followed on 18 January and the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman on 26 January.
Jenrick, Rosindell and Braverman kept their seats as Reform UK MPs, alongside Danny Kruger, who had defected in September 2025; Braverman later said she would not call a by-election. A petition calling for automatic by-elections when MPs change party passed 100,000 signatures and was debated by MPs in March 2026; the government said it had no plans to change the rules.
The defections show divisions inside an established party after a heavy election defeat, and an emerging party drawing on its experienced politicians. Three sitting Conservative MPs, two of them frontbenchers, left within eleven days, and five of Reform UK’s eight MPs were formerly Conservatives. The episode also shows a leader using the whip and party membership to discipline an MP.
It raises a question about representation: whether voters elect a person or a party. The government and the defectors argue that MPs are elected as individuals and may change party; supporters of the petition and some Conservatives argue that a by-election is needed so that constituents can give a new mandate.
Supporters of automatic by-elections, including the petition’s 129,335 signatories and the Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake, argue that most people vote for a party, so an MP who changes party should seek a new mandate. In 2014 Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless resigned to re-contest their seats when they joined UKIP.
Even after the defections Reform UK held 8 of the 650 Commons seats, against 116 for the Conservatives, and none of the MPs who joined it by defecting was elected as a Reform candidate.
Badenoch presented the removal of the whip as something she “had to do” once she learned of the plan, and the Conservative Party said Braverman’s departure had long been expected. On this view, the losses reflect individual decisions rather than a collapse of the party.
A change of party by MPs shows what politicians think of a party’s prospects, not how voters will behave. Elections and polls are needed to judge whether support has moved.
The facts and their significance still stand.
A recent, well-documented example of divisions in an established party and the growth of an emerging one, which also links to debates about representation.
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Origin: Human-written · Reviewer: Editor
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