This is a list of notable defections or splits made by United Kingdom parliamentarians. They must have either been sitting MPs, MSPs or MEPs at the time, or in between sessions.
| Year | Name | Original affiliation | New affiliation | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1888 | Robert Cunninghame-Graham | Liberal | Scottish Labour | The first socialist MP. | ||
| 1904 | Winston Churchill | Conservative | Liberal | |||
| 1919 | Cecil L'Estrange Malone | Liberal | British Socialist | Party subsequently joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. | ||
| 1920 | Oswald Mosley | Conservative | Independent | |||
| 1924 | Oswald Mosley | Independent | Labour | |||
| 1924 | Winston Churchill | Independent (Constitutionalist) | Conservative | |||
| 1931 | Oswald Mosley | Labour | New Party | |||
| 1931 | Ramsay MacDonald and Philip Snowden |
Labour | National Labour | |||
| 1946 | Ernest Millington | Common Wealth | Labour | |||
| 1947 | Campbell Stephen, John McGovern and James Carmichael |
Ind. Labour Party | Labour | |||
| 1948 | Tom Horabin | Liberal | Labour | |||
| 1948 | Ivor Thomas | Labour | Conservative | |||
| 1949 | Alfred Edwards | Labour | Conservative | |||
| 1955 | Richard Acland | Labour | Independent | |||
| 1962 | Alan Grahame Brown | Labour | Conservative | |||
| 1968 | Desmond Donnelly | Labour | Independent | Later formed the Democratic Party | ||
| 1974 | Christopher Mayhew | Labour | Liberal | |||
| 1976 | John Stonehouse | Labour | English National Party | |||
| 1976 | Jim Sillars | Labour | Scottish Labour | |||
| 1976 | John Robertson | Labour | Scottish Labour | |||
| 1977 | Reginald Prentice | Labour | Conservative | |||
| 1981 | Tom Bradley, Ronald Brown, John Cartwright, Richard Crawshaw, George Cunningham, Bruce Douglas-Mann, James Dunn, Tom Ellis, David Ginsburg, John Grant,, John Horam Ednyfed Hudson Davies, Edward Lyons, Dickson Mabon, Robert Maclennan, Tom McNally, Bryan Magee, Edmund Marshall, Bob Mitchell, Eric Ogden, Michael O'Halloran, David Owen, William Rogers, Neville Sandelson, Jeffrey Thomas, Michael Thomas, Ian Wrigglesworth and James Wellbeloved |
Labour | Social Democrat | In addition to Owen and Rogers, the "Gang of Four" who originally founded the SDP included Shirley Williams and Roy Jenkins neither of whom were MPs at the time of their defections. | ||
| 1981 | Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler | Conservative | Social Democrat | |||
| 1983 | Michael O'Halloran | Social Democrat | Independent Labour | |||
| 1984 | Michael Gallagher MEP | Labour | Social Democrat | |||
| 1990 | Dick Douglas | Labour | SNP | |||
| 1995 | Alan Howarth | Conservative | Labour | |||
| 1995 | Emma Nicholson | Conservative | Liberal Democrat | |||
| 1996 | Peter Thurnham | Conservative | Liberal Democrat | |||
| 1997 | George Gardiner | Conservative | Referendum Party | |||
| 1997 | Peter Temple-Morris | Conservative | Labour | Sat as a "One Nation Conservative" until 1998 | ||
| 1999 | Shaun Woodward | Conservative | Labour | |||
| 2000 | Bill Newton Dunn MEP | Conservative | Liberal Democrat | |||
| 2001 | Paul Marsden | Labour | Liberal Democrat | |||
| 2002 | Richard Balfe MEP | Labour | Conservative | |||
| 2002 | Andrew Hunter | Conservative | Democratic Unionist | Did not take party whip until 2004 | ||
| 2003 | Margo MacDonald | SNP | Independent | |||
| 2004 | Jeffrey Donaldson | Ulster Unionist | Democratic Unionist | |||
| 2004 | George Galloway | Labour | Respect | Independent until formation of RESPECT. | ||
| 2004 | Campbell Martin | SNP | Independent | |||
| 2004 | Robert Kilroy-Silk MEP | UKIP | Veritas | |||
| 2005 | Robert V. Jackson | Conservative | Labour | |||
| 2005 | Brian Monteith MSP | Conservative | Independent | |||
| 2006 | Clare Short | Labour | Independent | |||
| 2007 | Quentin Davies | Conservative | Labour | |||
| 2007 | Sajjad Karim MEP | Liberal Democrat | Conservative | |||
| 2008 | Bob Spink | Conservative | UKIP | redesignated as an Independent, on the grounds that UKIP had no 'whip' | ||
| 2010 | Edward McMillan-Scott MEP | Conservative | Liberal Democrat | Expelled from the Conservative Party in September 2009 having successfully stood for re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament against the candidate endorsed by the grouping including the Conservative Party in July 2009. | ||
| 2010 | Sylvia Hermon | Ulster Unionist | Independent | |||
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—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)