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(Bloomberg) — A Conservative MP facing misconduct allegations said he will stand down as a Member of Parliament in the next election, leaving Prime Minister Rishi Sunak struggling to contain the scandal that has engulfed his party. .
Mark Menzies, MP for Field in Lancashire, northwest England, was suspended by the Tories last week after The Times newspaper reported that he had phoned an elderly local worker at 3am one morning and asked her to give him £5,000 ($6,180). Said for.
According to the newspaper report, Menzies told the woman he needed money to pay off “bad people” who had locked him in a flat. Menzies has said he “disputes” the claims, which are being reviewed by Lancashire Police.
“I have decided to resign from the Conservative Party and will not stand in the upcoming general election,” Menzies said in a statement provided by his party on Sunday. Menzies has “demonstrated a pattern of behavior that falls below the standards expected of MPs.” “A spokesman for the Conservative Party said.
Read more: Tories leaving UK Parliament at fastest pace since Blair’s rise
Menzies becomes the 64th Tory MP to announce he will not seek re-election in the next 10 months. That roster has grown steadily in recent months, helping to create a narrative that many of the party’s MPs have conceded defeat in the face of opinion polls that consistently show Keir Starmer’s opposition Labor Party on track to take power. Is.
The feeling of malaise has been further heightened by a series of scandals involving mainly Tory MPs. Earlier this month, William Wragg, a backbencher, resigned as party whip after admitting sharing his colleagues’ phone numbers with someone on a dating app, which it later emerged he was using to “honeytrap” MPs. Was trying to do.
The Conservatives are also contesting a special election in Blackpool South on May 2 after former MP Scott Benton stepped down after breaching the rules governing the conduct of MPs on lobbying. It comes after the Tories lost a by-election in Wellingborough in February, which was called after its MP Peter Bone’s political career ended amid bullying and sexual misconduct claims.
Read more: Sunak’s campaign slogan risks provoking nostalgia for the Labor years
Some eight former Tory MPs currently sit in the House of Commons as independents, having lost the party whip due to allegations of misconduct.
The series of recent events echoes the scandals that occurred in the last years of former Prime Minister John Major’s tenure in the nineties. At the time, a number of Tory MPs faced allegations of misconduct during a period of decline for the party which had been in power for almost two decades, before being defeated by Tony Blair’s Labor by a landslide in the 1997 general election.
More stories like this are available on Bloomberg.com
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Published: April 21, 2024, 11:07 pm IST
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