A former Tory MP exposed by The Times for offering to lobby ministers in exchange for money has resigned his seat, triggering a fresh by-election headache for Rishi Sunak.
Scott Benton was facing the prospect of losing his Blackpool South seat when the results of a recall petition were due next month but instead announced that he would quit with immediate effect.
The ex-Conservative MP was filmed during a meeting last year with undercover Times reporters posing as gambling industry investors offering to break lobbying rules.
The MP had told reporters he could leak a confidential policy document, table parliamentary questions, call in “favours” from colleagues and provide “behind-the-scenes” information if he was hired to advise a fictitious investment fund.
He had the Tory whip removed and was subsequently suspended from the Commons for 35 days after MPs on the standards committee criticised his “very serious” breach of parliamentary rules and said he had appeared to be “corrupt and for sale”.
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Benton, 36, who had previously denied any wrongdoing, said in a statement that he had tendered his resignation with a “heavy heart” in order to give a new Conservative candidate “time and space to campaign”.
The former MP lost his appeal against a decision to ban him from parliament in February and a recall petition has been underway since mid-March, with voters in his constituency given until April 22 to take part.
If more than 10 per cent of voters had signed the petition, Benton, a former primary school teacher and local councillor, would have been removed from the seat.
His resignation means that Rishi Sunak faces a tricky by-election in Blackpool South, which Benton wrested from two decades of Labour control when he won it with a 3,690-vote majority in 2019.
The Labour candidate, Chris Webb, a former deputy police and crime commissioner for Lancashire, is the favourite to win the seat, while the Reform Party will also hope for a strong showing.
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The by-election is expected to take place on May 2, when voters in England and Wales will be taking part in local and mayoral elections.
The events leading to Benton’s downfall began in February last year when he responded to an email from an investment fund called Tahr Partners which said it was seeking an “expert adviser” to provide insight for their investment strategy amid a major review of gambling laws.
The fake company had been set up by Times reporters investigating allegations that, despite previous lobbying scandals, some MPs were still willing to break rules banning paid lobbying.
Over a 70-minute meeting at a central London hotel last March, Benton described how he was willing to help the company pursue its commercial interests if he was hired for a paid role worth up to £2,000 a day.
• Read the Times investigation that exposed Benton’s misconduct
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He said that, unlike PR or lobbying firms, he could get “the direct ear of a minister who is actually going to make these decisions” because of the access afforded when voting in the House of Commons.
“You will literally stand at the beginning at the entrance to the voting lobby. And if you wait there for five minutes, the minister has to pass you. And then you’ve got ten minutes while you walk around to the next vote to have his ear,” Benton said.
He also promised to leak a copy of a then-forthcoming and highly sensitive white paper review of gambling laws at least 48 hours before the document was made public, despite it containing market sensitive information.
MPs are banned from paid lobbying and in December, MPs on the standards committee ruled that he had brought parliament into disrepute and should be suspended from the Commons.
“He communicated a toxic message about standards in parliament,” the committee said. “We condemn Mr Benton for his comments, which unjustifiably tarnish the reputation of all MPs.”
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Benton appealed that decision, accusing MPs on the committee of not being “open-minded, fair [or] proportionate” in how they handled evidence, claiming it meant “our democracy is under threat”.
An independent panel subsequently rejected this appeal, concluding his arguments were “misconceived or erroneous”.
