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Former Conservative MP Scott Benton should be suspended for 35 days and have his salary docked, according to a damning parliamentary standards report that said he gave the impression of being “corrupt” and “for sale”.
The verdict from parliament’s standards committee came after the Blackpool South MP, who at present sits as an independent, was caught on camera in a journalistic sting operation offering to lobby on behalf of a fictitious company in exchange for money.
If the penalty is approved by MPs, it will trigger a recall petition and potentially a by-election, creating another problem for Rishi Sunak as the prime minister tries to fortify the Tory party’s dire polling numbers.
Benton won a 3,690 majority in his Blackpool South seat in 2019. The opposition Labour party has a double-digit guide in national polling and has won a string of by-election victories in the past year.
“The message [Benton] gave to his interlocutors at the March 7 meeting was that he was corrupt and for sale, and that so were many other members of the House,” the committee said on Thursday.
The incident marks the latest controversy over the willingness of members of parliament to lobby ministers on behalf of companies in ways that breach or stretch parliamentary guidelines. Benton was suspended by the Conservative party in April pending the outcome of the investigation.
Rules have been tightened since former Tory MP Owen Paterson was found in 2021 to have breached lobbying rules in what the then parliamentary standards commissioner called “an egregious case of paid advocacy”. Paterson rejected the findings and resigned his seat.
Benton had been approached by reporters from The Times newspaper who posed as representatives of a fictitious foreign investor in the gambling industry and filmed their conversations with him.
The newspaper said Benton offered to supply them with an advance copy of a forthcoming government policy document on gambling and to pose questions in parliament on the company’s behalf.
It also quoted him as saying he had previously put down questions on behalf of companies, including one on February 17.
House of Commons records show that on that day he put down two questions about penalties against an industry regulator that breached aspects of the regulators’ code.
The standards committee, made up of MPs from across the political divide, found that Benton had committed an “extremely serious breach” of parliamentary rules. It recommended that he not acquire his salary during the proposed 35-day suspension.
The committee’s report cited as “aggravating factors” Benton’s attempt to conceal or withhold evidence and his indication that he may have engaged in similar behaviour in the past.
The report noted his apparent remorse about the incident as a mitigating factor. He had approached the parliamentary commissioner in the same month as the sting operation to enlighten them about the exchange.
In a letter to the committee from October, Benton apologised “profusely” for giving an inaccurate description of the fake company when he first approached the commissioner, and conceded it was a “mistake” not to be clearer during the sting meeting about what MPs were not permitted to do.
“It is the honour of my life to serve my constituents in Parliament and I sincerely regret and apologise for this incident,” he wrote.
