{"id":9422,"date":"2024-03-25T15:20:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/25\/former-tory-mp-scott-benton-resigns-from-parliament-triggering-by-election\/"},"modified":"2024-03-25T15:20:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:20:59","slug":"former-tory-mp-scott-benton-resigns-from-parliament-triggering-by-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/25\/former-tory-mp-scott-benton-resigns-from-parliament-triggering-by-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Tory MP Scott Benton resigns from parliament, triggering by-election"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"70\" height=\"70\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/12\/70x70\/skynews-conservative-scott-benton_6392573.jpg?20231214092231&amp;fit=70,70&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Former Tory MP Scott Benton resigns from parliament, triggering by-election\" title=\"Former Tory MP Scott Benton resigns from parliament, triggering by-election\" \/><\/div>\n<div data-component-name=\"sdc-article-body\" data-highlight-intro=\"true\">\n<p>A former Tory MP who was facing the prospect of being removed from his seat by voters has announced he is resigning from parliament &#8211; triggering another by-election.<\/p>\n<p>Scott Benton, who represents Blackpool South, said it had been &#8220;the honour of a lifetime to represent our wonderful Blackpool community in parliament over the last four years&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s with a heavy heart that I have written to the chancellor this morning to tender my resignation as your MP,&#8221; he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n<p>His resignation will trigger a by-election unless Rishi Sunak calls a general election sooner &#8211; something that is unlikely after he ruled out holding an election on May 2 and said he is still aiming for the second half of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Benton, who was elected to the seat in 2019, was facing a recall petition after he was suspended from the Commons for 35 days over his role in a lobbying sting.<\/p>\n<p>MPs approved the suspension last month without the need for a vote.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Benton could have been forced out by voters had 10% of his constituents had signed the recall petition that was generated following his suspension.<\/p>\n<p>The outgoing MP had the Tory whip removed last April after suggesting to undercover reporters at The Times that he would be <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/mp-suggests-he-is-willing-to-break-lobbying-rules-for-money-12850619\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">willing to break lobbying rules for money.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A subsequent investigation by parliament&#8217;s Standards Committee found he had committed a &#8220;very serious breach&#8221; of the rules and recommended a 35-day suspension from the Commons.<\/p>\n<p>A subsequent appeal he lodged was dismissed by the Independent Expert Panel, the body that sits above the committee.<\/p>\n<p>The probable by-election will be the 23rd by-election that has taken place this parliament and follows on from the most recent contest in Rochdale, which was won by George Galloway last month.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Tory MP who was facing the prospect of being removed from his seat by voters has announced he is resigning from parliament &#8211; triggering another by-election. Scott Benton, who represents Blackpool South, said it had been &#8220;the honour of a lifetime to represent our wonderful Blackpool community in parliament over the last four [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/12\/70x70\/skynews-conservative-scott-benton_6392573.jpg?20231214092231","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[14339,14341,3321,6952,14338,492,14340],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9424,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9422\/revisions\/9424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}