Christian Wakeford backed bill mandating by-elections for MPs who switch party before jumping to Labour

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Christian Wakeford backed a bill that could make by-elections mandatory for MPs who change political party. The MP for Bury South defected to Labour from the Conservatives just before Prime Ministers Questions today.

In September 2020, he presented and backed the Recall of MPs (Change of Party Affiliation) Bill - which was sponsored by Conservative MP Anthony Mangnall. READ MORE: What former Tory Bury South MP Christian Wakeford told Boris Johnson as he defected to Labour The bill would enable constituents to recall their MP and call a by-election if they 'voluntarily change their political party affiliation'.

Young Labour said in a Tweet: "The Labour Party must uphold Bury South members’ right to choose their own Labour candidate and constituents should be able to reassess their MP." Anthony Mangnall, MP for Totes, outlined to procedure in the bill's first reading in the House of Commons.

He said: "This bill seeks to update the Recall of MPs Act 2015 with a fourth recall condition: any MP who voluntarily leaves the political party they represented upon their election to the House of Commons becomes subject to a recall petition. "Such a petition would occur by Mr Speaker giving notice to a petitions officer, who would in turn give notice to the parliamentary electors in the relevant constituency, after which a petition would be open for eight weeks. "If at the end of that period at least 10 per cent of the eligible electors had signed that petition, the seat would be declared vacant and a by-election would be held. "It is important to note and understand that the petition acts as the safety mechanism to preventing a needless by-election; if our constituents view the action of crossing the floor as principled and just,