Over 3000 people sign petition demanding MSs give up their seats if they defect
Emily Price
A petition calling for Senedd Members who switch parties to give up their seats has attracted more than 3,000 signatures.
Christopher Blackwood launched the Senedd petition on September 15, the same day Reform UK’s Sarah Cooper-Lesadd announced she was leaving Nigel Farage’s party to join Plaid Cymru.
Cooper-Lesadd launched an attack on Reform UK when she jumped ship, accusing the party of using its Senedd group merely as a “staging post” to help get Farage into Downing Street.
Her defection prompted criticism from Reform supporters and party officials who argued that she should not be able to retain a seat won under the party’s banner.
The arguement centres on the fact that voters did not choose Cooper-Lesadd as an individual candidate at May’s Senedd election.
Under the new closed-list system, they cast their vote for Reform UK, with Cooper-Lesadd subsequently taking one of the party’s seats having being selected to stand in first place on the party’s list.
However, despite leaving Reform UK for Plaid Cymru, Cooper-Lesadd is legally entitled to keep her Senedd seat because there is no requirement under the current rules for MSs who defect to another party to resign and face a by-election.
This has fuelled calls for the rules to be changed, with the petition arguing that MSs who choose to leave the party under which they were elected should give up their seat.
Mr Blackwood’s petition states: “This proposal is not about stopping Members from changing their political beliefs.
“It is about protecting the vote cast by the public.
“Under a closed-list system, voters choose a political party and its list of candidates.
“If a Member elected from that list later leaves the party, the voter has no opportunity to approve that change.
“A fairer system would allow the Member to leave the party if they wish, but require them to give up the list seat.
“The seat could then pass to the next eligible candidate from the original party list.
“This would keep the result closer to what voters actually chose at the election and help maintain trust in the Senedd electoral system.”
Senior Reform UK Senedd staffer Derek Roberts has been promoting the petition on social media in an effort to attract more signatures.
Roberts was selected by Reform UK to stand in second place in Cooper-Lesadd’s constituency at the Welsh election, but was forced to step down after strong concerns were raised by his fellow candidates about the “racist” and offensive content he shared online.
Posting the petition in several community Facebook groups at the weekend, Roberts wrote: “Help Reform UK Wales and sign this petition.
“We had a defection and we must show our anger on the system.”
Senedd petitions collect data showing the constituencies in which signatories live.
The data gathered so far shows that Cooper-Lesadd’s own constituency of Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg has by far the highest number of signatories at around 370.
The next highest figure is Casnewydd Islwyn with around 230 signatures clocked up there, followed by Sir Gaerfyrddin with 220.
Altogether the petition has so far gathered over 3000 signatures and will continue to gather signatures until October 15.
Petitions with more than 10,000 signatures will be considered for a debate in the Senedd.
The petition has already met the 250 signature threshold to be discussed by the Petitions Committee, which is chaired by Reform UK’s Jason O’Connell.
In recent days O’Connell has branded Cooper-Lesadd a “fraud” for crossing the floor, and has called for her resignation.
Last week, he received a sharp reprimand from the Senedd’s deputy presiding officer after he deviated from questioning a minister in order to lash out his former Reform UK colleague.
Reform UK’s politicians, including O’Connell himself, are no strangers to defections.
Several of the party’s high-profile MSs previously served as Conservative politicians before standing under Reform UK’s banner at the May 7 Senedd election.
Cooper-Lesadd herself argues that Reform UK still has representation in the Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg constituency, with Gareth Thomas still holding one of the region’s six seats.
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Presumably they also mean MPs. Reform leadership in London should take note.
The petition is for the Senedd nothing to do with Westminster
Surely it’s about the principle.
What principle is that. The Senedd is the Senedd we have our own rules in Wales.
If an elected representative is elected on a party platform should they ever be able to cross the floor or indeed become independent or must resignation be the only choice. Your answer must apply to all elected bodies.
In the UK, they are elected as an MP individually, the “party” aspect is incidental.
For you perhaps but most people are voting for a party or even its leader.
Although you are correct—it is indeed an official Senedd petition and has nothing to do with Westminster—there are those who have their own de facto petitions on Facebook and other social media sites that include links to the Senedd petition, urging supporters to sign it. The same tactics were used in relation to the 20 mph default speed limit petition.
But reform are all Tory.
I wonder why these defective deform supporters remained quiet when the tori reject Laura joined reform.
Because… she was appointed through the standard process? Then elected? Once you go through the election process and get elected, previous history ceases to matter.
I personally do not like the idea of someone being elected to represent one party and then joining another. However, until the practice is stopped, it is going to continue. But what I cannot tolerate is hypocrisy. Where were people such as Christopher Blackwood and his petition when the then AM Mohammad Asghar defected from Plaid Cymru to the Welsh Conservatives in 2009? There were no Facebook petitions or criticisms from people such as Andrew RT Davies. In fact, he and his group were ecstatic. And what about the four UKIP AMs who crossed the floor to join the Brexit… Read more »
Beautifully articulated and factually on point! Da iawn ‘Y Cymro’ and ‘diolch’ for putting all in perspective! In politics there are always winners & losers. Legislating where the goalposts ‘should be’ is ridiculous!
The difference is, you were essentially told you were voting for a party in this election.
Back then, you were voting for individuals.
plaid explicitly campaigned on the ‘vote for us to stop reform’ mantra – which shows they didn’t believe you were voting for individuals.
And obviously, nobody knew who this lady was prior to the election.
So, you’re really comparing apples with pears.
Plus, this lady is a complete Fair weather opportunist politician and isn’t exactly strongly aligned with plaid, you only need to look at her background!
Laura Anne Jones was elected on the South Wales East Regional Party list at the 2021 Senedd election. In party lists, people were voting for the party rather than any one individual. Therefore, comparing her defection with Rebecca Cooper-Lesadd’s defection is very much the same as comparing apples with apples!!
I’m a plaid voter, but I have to agree with reform on this. Nobody seriously voted for individuals in this election.
The only reason she’s been able to change parties because the original legislation was so poorly drafted and poorly scrutinised.
This is what really annoys people and turns them against politicians and ultimately drives them into voting for stupid things like Brexit
Same here and fully agree. Though it’s important to note that Reform are only crying about this now as it’s directly affected them. No such complaints from them previously when Tories have defected to them. I imagine that if this rule was changed in future and that they themselves fell foul of it, they would soon be calling to scrap it!
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Hi could you consider Sharing this petition?
It will follow the Welsh Senedd stance on making it a criminal offence for for Westminster MPs to lie while trying to obtaining or in office.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/766283
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While I welcome Cooper-Lesard’s change of heart; as we now vote for Party rather than Candidate, changing party after election is now neither reasonable nor sustainable
Other than independents it’s very rare that someone votes for the candidate not the party under any system. I wonder how many could even name their own MP.
That might be how people use the system, but the system used doesn’t agree. Which is why FPTP creates absurd outcomes. However, the answer to that is to match the electoral system to the way people actually behave and that means PR (STV). Unfortunately, under the FPTP system the representative is elected directly and receives their own unique mandate to do whatever the hell they like for the next five years because you voted for them, not what they stand for.
Only because it was originally the local landowner standing to represent other landowners in a parliament set up to protect the interests of landowners. I think we’ve moved on from that after the success of the Chartists.
Funny that. I don’t remember anyone asking when MPs and MSs defected TO reform
The WG should stand on principal regardless of other elected bodies. Unless of course Plaid disagrees.