Suspended Tory MP Scott Benton faces 35-day Commons ban

Scott Benton faces being suspended from Parliament, after the Commons standards watchdog found he committed a "very serious breach" of lobbying rules.

The Committee on Standards recommended the MP should be suspended for 35 days.

If approved by MPs, this could lead to a by-election in his Blackpool South constituency.

Mr Benton was suspended as a Tory MP earlier this year after he was filmed offering to lobby ministers for a fake company in a newspaper sting.

In a meeting with reporters posing as gambling industry investors, he was caught offering to lobby ministers and table parliamentary questions.