40 Facts About Mark Reckless

Mark Reckless has since changed parties a further four times.

Mark Reckless led a rebellion of 53 Conservative MPs on the EU budget, which inflicted the first House of Commons defeat on the coalition government.

Mark Reckless campaigned to leave the European Union in the 2016 EU membership referendum.

Mark Reckless subsequently left UKIP to join the Conservative group in the National Assembly before joining the Brexit Party in 2019 when he was appointed its leader in the National Assembly by Nigel Farage.

On 19 October 2020, Mark Reckless joined the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party; the party lost both of its seats in the 2021 Senedd election.

Mark Reckless's mother emigrated to the UK when she was 17 to train as a nurse; however, Reckless has said that he does not see his mother as an "immigrant" and stated "I don't consider myself to have an immigrant background".

Mark Reckless was educated at Marlborough College before attending Christ Church, Oxford, where he read philosophy, politics and economics.

Mark Reckless then pursued postgraduate studies at Columbia Business School in the United States, receiving an MBA.

Until his election in May 2010, Mark Reckless had been a solicitor at Herbert Smith and had worked on legal matters that had had dealings with private investigators.

Mark Reckless was a member of the Kent Police Authority from 2007 to 2011.

Mark Reckless married Catriona Brown at Westminster Cathedral on 1 October 2011; the reception was held in the Palace of Westminster.

In May 2015 Catriona Brown-Mark Reckless was elected as a UKIP Councillor for Strood South in Medway.

At the 2001 UK General Election, Mark Reckless ran as the Conservative Party candidate for the Medway constituency, coming second.

Between 2002 and 2014, Mark Reckless was a member of the policy unit at Conservative Central Office where he wrote a book on deregulation policy as well as overseeing the development of the policy on directly elected police commissioners.

Mark Reckless again came second in the seat, although his opponent Bob Marshall Andrews' majority was reduced significantly, from 3,750 to 213.

Mark Reckless served as a Medway councillor between 2007 and 2011.

In 2008, Mark Reckless was selected to contest the Rochester and Strood constituency for the Conservative Party.

Mark Reckless was successfully elected at the 2010 general election,.

Mark Reckless was elected to the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2010.

Mark Reckless was one of parliament's most rebellious MPs and was the 13th-most rebellious Conservative MP between 2010 and 2014, casting 56 votes against the whip.

In July 2010, Mark Reckless apologised for missing a vote on the budget because he was drunk.

Mark Reckless said that he "did not feel it was appropriate to take part in the vote because of the amount he had drunk".

Mark Reckless was chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Georgia.

On 30 September 2014, Mark Reckless applied for the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds and therefore ceased to be an MP.

Mark Reckless was returned as a member of parliament for UKIP, becoming the party's second elected MP.

On 31 October 2012, Mark Reckless led a rebellion of 53 Conservative MPs which inflicted the first House of Commons defeat on the coalition government.

On 27 September 2014, Mark Reckless defected to the UK Independence Party at its party conference in Doncaster, and announced his resignation in order to seek re-election at a by-election.

Mark Reckless became the second Conservative MP in the space of a month to defect to UKIP, the first being his close friend Douglas Carswell.

In June 2015, Mark Reckless was made Director of Policy Development by UKIP.

In March 2016, Mark Reckless was announced as UKIP's lead candidate for the regional seat of South Wales East despite having no previous links to Wales.

On 6 April 2017, Mark Reckless left UKIP to join the Conservative Group; however, he did not rejoin the Conservative Party.

On 14 April 2019, Mark Reckless left the Conservative Group over the party's failure to deliver Brexit.

Mark Reckless then sat as an independent member before joining the Brexit Party the following month.

On 15 May 2019, Mark Reckless stated his intention to form a new Brexit Party political group in the Senedd, along with Caroline Jones, Mandy Jones, and David Rowlands, with himself as the leader of the group.

Mark Reckless then left the party and joined the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party.

Mark Reckless said, since Brexit had been effectively achieved, the work of the Brexit Party was complete.

Mark Reckless was the Abolish candidate for Monmouth at the 2021 Senedd election, taking 1,173 votes.

Mark Reckless notably came behind the Conservative-turned-independent MS Nick Ramsay, who was unsuccessful in his re-election bid.

Additionally, Mark Reckless was the lead Abolish candidate in South Wales East, with the party receiving 9,995 list votes, and no seats.

In November 2024, Mark Reckless appeared at Reform UK's Wales conference as a speaker and member of the party.