Blackpool by-election battering looms for Rishi

So. Farewell then Scott Benton. The disgraced Blackpool South MP today becomes the disgraced former Blackpool South MP after he announced plans to quit the House of Commons. In April last year Benton lost the Tory whip after being filmed in an undercover Times sting in which he offered to lobby for gambling industry investors. Since then Benton has vigorously protested his innocence but, with a by-election via the recall process looking likely, he has now decided to jump before he was pushed. In a statement he wrote that:

It’s with a heavy heart that I have written to the Chancellor this morning to tender my resignation as your MP. 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.

Attention now turns to the contest to replace him.