UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suspended a Conservative MP after he was caught on video appearing to offer to lobby on gambling issues in exchange for money.
(Bloomberg) — UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suspended a Conservative MP after he was caught on video appearing to offer to lobby on gambling issues in exchange for money.
Scott Benton, the lawmaker for Blackpool South elected in 2019, was filmed by undercover reporters for the Times newspaper saying he could ask questions in Parliament, leak a market-sensitive document and lobby government ministers on behalf of gambling industry investors. The reporters, who were posing as British-Indian investors, proposed a fee of £2,000 to £4,000 a month for two days’ work, to which Benton replied “Yes, I think that’s, yeah.”
“Scott Benton has had the Conservative Party Whip suspended whilst an investigation is ongoing,” a spokesperson for the party’s chief whip, Simon Hart, said in a statement. Benton has also referred himself to Parliament’s commissioner for standards, the spokesperson said.
MPs are banned from acting as paid lobbyists and they’re also barred from acting as parliamentary advisers or consultants who give advice on how to influence the law-making process.
In a statement to the Times, Benton said he contacted House of Commons authorities after the meeting to seek advice because he was “concerned that what was being asked of me was not within parliamentary rules” and there had been “no further contact.”
Benton didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg News.
“This behavior is totally unacceptable,” Transport Minister Richard Holden said Thursday on Times Radio. “I’m glad that it’s going to be thoroughly investigated.”
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