Mark Reckless

Reckless resigned as a Conservative MP in 2014 and won the resulting Rochester and Strood by-election for UKIP. He therefore obtained an electoral mandate for the switch before losing to Conservative Kelly Tolhurst at the 2015 general election. That intervening victory is essential to the story: the party break initially succeeded. His subsequent defeat shows how support in a highly focused by-election can differ from the choice voters make when deciding a national government.