A former member of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives said he would resign as a lawmaker after a standards watchdog recommended a 35-day suspension for committing an "extremely serious breach" of parliament's rules.
Scott Benton's resignation sets up a vote to replace him that could cause Sunak another potential headache in May, when his Conservatives - trailing badly in the polls - are already set to be tested in a number of local votes.
The Times newspaper published a video in which Benton told its undercover reporters, who were posing as gambling industry investors looking for a paid adviser, that he could leak them a copy of an upcoming market-sensitive government policy paper on gambling reforms.
Benton, who has been a member of parliament since 2019, also offered to submit parliamentary questions and talked of his access to ministers. The journalists had proposed paying him thousands of pounds a month, the Times said.
Benton has described the meeting as "a lapse in judgment" and said he deeply regretted his comments but that he did not consider his actions to be a breach of the rules.
The proceedings against him could have seen him removed as a lawmaker through a recall petition of voters.
In a resignation statement, Benton did not refer to the report and suspension, but said he wanted the next Conservative candidate to have more time to build their profile ahead of a national election expected this year.
"A Labour government would be catastrophic for our country. I'm mindful of giving a new candidate the time and space to campaign to prevent that from happening and it is for this reason that I have made this decision at this time," Benton said in the statement, referring to the current opposition party.
Depending on when Benton's resignation is formally processed, the by-election to replace him in the parliamentary seat of Blackpool South could coincide with a swathe of other local and mayoral elections on May 2.
Representing part of a seaside town in northwest England since 2019, Benton had been the first Conservative to win in Blackpool South since 1997.
