Rishi Sunak faces fresh by-election headache after ex-Tory MP quits

The Conservatives are facing the prospect of another damaging by-election loss after ex-Tory MP Scott Benton announced he was quitting the Commons.

The Blackpool South MP, who lost the Conservative Party whip in April 2023, was due to face a recall petition in his constituency after he lost an appeal against the decision to suspend him from the Commons for 35 days.

In a letter, seen by GB News, he confirmed he was quitting as an MP with immediate effect, setting the scene for a by-election in his seat earlier than would have been expected if the recall petition had been completed.

“It’s with a heavy heart that I have written to the Chancellor this morning to tender my resignation as your MP,” Mr Benton said.

“I’d like to thank the hundreds of residents who have sent supportive messages, cards and letters over the last few months and who have urged me to continue and fight the next election.”

It is expected that the writ triggering the by-election will be tabled in the Commons tomorrow before it breaks for recess, which means that it will likely be held on 2 May – the same day that local elections are being held across England.

The Conservatives won Blackpool South in 2019 with a majority of just 3,690, raising the prospect of another difficult by-election for the Prime Minister after losses in Kingswood, Wellingborough, Tamworth, Mid Bedfordshire, Rutherglen and Selby.

Blackpool South is considered a marginal constituency and has been held by both Labour and the Conservatives over recent decades.

Labour MP Gordan Marsden held the seat from 1997 – the year of Tony Blair’s landslide election victory – up until it was won by Benton in 2019.

However, before Mr Marsden took the seat, it had been consistently held by Conservative MPs since its creation in 1945.

Mr Benton quit as an MP before a recall petition, which would have triggered a by-election if signed by 10 per cent of voters in his constituency, could be completed.

The recall petition was launched after the Blackpool South MP lost an appeal against a decision by the Commons Standards Committee that he be suspended for 35 days for causing “significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons”.

The MP had referred himself for investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after he was recorded by The Times in April 2023 saying he could table questions to ministers on behalf of lobbyists if they paid him £2,000 to £3,000 a month.

He lost the Tory whip as a result of the sting but has defended his actions claiming that he immediately sought clarification on the rules around parliamentary lobbying and did not seek to pursue the offer of a part-time job from the fake company.

He appealed against both the findings of the Committee and the suspension, but in a report published earlier this month, an independent panel upheld the Standards Committee’s original decision, saying there had been “no procedural flaw” in the process.