BENTON
Scott

Scott Lloyd Benton is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Blackpool South since the 2019 United Kingdom general election currently sitting as an independent MP.

Political career

In 2011, Benton was elected to Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council for the Brighouse ward. At times he was deputy leader of the Council and then leader of the Conservative group. From 2013 to 2019 Benton worked as a Parliamentary assistant for Craig Whittaker, the Conservative MP for Calder Valley.

In 2015, Benton unsuccessfully proposed a motion that all schools in his council district should sing the national anthem daily and be encouraged to fly the Union flag.

Benton previously stodd for election for Strangford at the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election and Huddersfield at the 2017 general election.

Benton was elected as MP for Blackpool South at the 2019 general election. His win marked the first time since 1997 that the constituency has been represented by a Conservative. His campaign included a proposal to reopen Blackpool Airport for commercial flights.

During the 2019 election campaign, David Brown, who stood for the Brexit Party against Benton, expressed concerns over his links to the anti-abortion organisation Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), which has campaigned against same-sex marriage and been accused of homophobia. In response, Benton stated that he was no longer linked to SPUC. He said that he supported their anti-abortion stance but was not homophobic and was a supporter of same-sex marriage.

On 13 June 2022, Benton was appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ministerial team.

Breaches of parliamentary rules

In January 2021, Benton was found to have broken Parliamentary rules for failing to declare payments he had received for his previous work as a parliamentary researcher for Calder Valley MP Craig Whittaker and as a councillor for Brighouse ward on Calderdale Council within 28 days. When asked about the allegations in November 2020, he cited "an admin error" for failing to declare his income as a councillor. In response to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards' findings, Benton apologised for "inadvertently breaching the rules".

In July 2021, Benton was one of nine MPs from different political parties who had accepted tickets to high-profile sporting events as hospitality from betting and gambling companies. He had received tickets to Royal Ascot, two Euro 2020 football games and Wimbledon.

In April 2023, The Times newspaper filmed Benton appearing to offer to leak confidential information and lobby ministers in return for payments from a group of fake gambling industry investors. In response, he referred himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards who opened an investigation in the same month. Benton also had his whip suspended pending the results of the investigation. At the time he was also the chairman of the All-party parliamentary group on betting and gaming. The Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, a body set up in 2014 to monitor political lobbying, ruled that Benton had not conducted "unregistered consultant lobbying activity" on behalf of the gambling industry based on "assurances" that they had received. In December 2023, a report by the Commons Standards Committee concluded that in his interactions with The Times were a "very serious breach" of lobbying rules and that he had given the message that "he was corrupt and 'for sale' and that so were many other Members of the House". The committee recommended that he be suspended from Parliament for 35 days. Benton announced on 15 December that he would appeal the decision.