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

After crossing the floor, he won re-election as a UKIP MP in a by-election held in November 2014 but lost his seat to the Conservatives at the 2015 general election.

[3] Born in London, Reckless is a grandson of Henry McDevitt, who served as a Fianna Fáil TD for Donegal East in Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament, from 1938 until 1943.

[5] Reckless was educated at Marlborough College before attending Christ Church, Oxford,[6] where he read philosophy, politics and economics.

[8] In the late 1990s, he worked as a strategy consultant and associate in Financial Services Group at Booz Allen Hamilton.

[9] Until his election in May 2010, Reckless had been a solicitor at Herbert Smith[10] and had worked on legal matters that had had dealings with private investigators.

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

[17] During the campaign he caused controversy by handing out a leaflet which claimed incumbent Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews "had a target" to admit 10,000 refugees per week.

[18][19] Andrews responded saying he was quoted out of context in relation to assisting people fleeing genocide during the Kosovo War.

[25] The UK Independence Party did not run a candidate of their own in Rochester and Strood in 2010, instead endorsing Reckless, and deploying their leader, Malcolm Pearson to campaign for him.

[37] A Eurosceptic,[38] Reckless is also a critic of the European Court of Human Rights, saying it erodes "British freedom and democracy".

On 31 October 2012, Reckless led a rebellion of 53 Conservative MPs which inflicted the first House of Commons defeat (307 votes to 294) on the coalition government.

[41] The Tory rebels voted with Labour MPs to pass an amendment calling for a real-terms cut in the 2014–2020 EU budget multi-annual financial framework.

The amendment was not binding on the government, but damaged prime minister David Cameron's authority on Europe before key EU budget negotiations in November 2012.

[2] In July 2020, he attracted criticism from pro-devolution Brexit Party volunteers when he stated that he would support the campaign to abolish the Senedd.

[57] Additionally, Reckless was the lead Abolish candidate in South Wales East, with the party receiving 9,995 list votes (4.8%), and no seats.