Party-switching has been relatively common among British MEPs in recent years. In the past ten years, 13 MEPs have ended their term of office in a different party to the one they started it in, 9 per cent of all those elected. That is equivalent to almost 60 MPs changing allegiances in the House of Commons between elections, which is unheard of.
When we look closer at the figures we see that this phenomenon is largely down to one party in particular: Ukip. Ukip has been very successful in recent European Parliament elections, winning 12 seats in 2004 and 13 in 2009. But following both elections, the party struggled to keep hold of its MEPs. In total, eight UKIP MEPs have left the party while still in office since 2004.
This means that in the past decade an MEP elected for UKIP has had a 1 in 3 chance of leaving the party, through defection or sacking, before the next election.
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