Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
Rishi Sunak will face another tough electoral test after MPs approved a 35-day suspension of former Conservative MP Scott Benton, who will face a by-election in his constituency. There is a possibility that it will be done.
A longer suspension means a recall petition will be triggered in the Blackpool South constituency, which Mr Benton won as a Conservative MP in 2019.
If the petition is approved by voters, by-elections will be held in the lowest-ranked seats, which are likely to be Labor’s main targets.
Can the Conservatives win South Blackpool?
Blackpool South is considered a marginal constituency and has been held by both Labor and the Conservative Party in recent decades.
Labor MP Gordan Marsden held the seat from Tony Blair’s landslide election victory in 1997 until Benton’s victory in 2019.
However, until Mr Marsden took over, the seat had always been held by Conservative MPs since its creation in 1945.
Mr Benton won with a narrow majority of 3,690 votes in 2019, but that could be overturned if there is strong support for Labor.
In recent by-elections, the party succeeded in overturning Toty’s majorities in seats such as Wellingborough, Kingswood, Tamworth, Selby and Mid-Bedfordshire.
Could Scott Benton stand as candidate for Blackpool South?
Mr Benton will not be able to stand as a Conservative candidate in Blackpool South because he has lost his party whip, but he can choose to run as an independent.
Labor has already selected Chris Webb as its candidate. He is a former deputy police commissioner and crime commissioner for Lancashire and worked alongside Sir Tony Lloyd, the former Labor MP for Rochdale, until Sir Tony’s death earlier this year.
Why was Scott Benton suspended from the Commons?
Last year, the House of Commons Standards Committee recommended that Benton be suspended for causing “serious damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons.”
The lawmaker had named himself for investigation by the National Assembly Standards Committee after the recording was made. times In April 2023, it said lobbyists could be paid between £2,000 and £3,000 a month to answer questions on behalf of ministers.
He lost his Conservative Party whip after the stabbing, but immediately called for clarity on parliamentary lobbying rules and defended his actions, insisting he had not sought to pursue a part-time job offer from a bogus company. I’m defending it.
Mr Benton claimed in his evidence to the inquiry that he “did not breach any parliamentary rules during the hour-long meeting with the fictitious company” and felt he had “complied with the letter and spirit of the rules”. did.
He appealed both the commission’s findings and the suspension, but in a report published earlier this month, the independent commission upheld the Standards Commission’s original decision and said: There were no procedural deficiencies.”
Will there be a by-election in Blackpool South?
under Recall of the Members of Parliament Act 2015Lawmakers convicted of certain wrongdoings or who have been suspended for long periods from the House of Representatives are subject to recall petitions, and voters can decide whether to hold by-elections.
Reasons for a petition include filing false or misleading expense claims. He was suspended from the House of Representatives for more than 10 days. or receives a prison sentence of less than one year (a member of parliament is automatically expelled from parliament if served with a prison sentence of more than one year).
Mr Benton’s 35-day suspension, approved by MPs on Tuesday, means a recall petition will be launched in the Blackpool south seat.
Petitions will be accepted for six weeks and the by-election process will automatically begin if 10 per cent of voters in the constituency sign.
Recall petition proceedings have been initiated five times to date, four of which led to by-elections.