RISHI SUNAK is facing new by-election humiliation after yet another Tory MP lost his appeal against sanctions for a sleaze scandal.

Blackpool South’s Scott Benton has been recommended by the Commons standards committee for a 35-day suspension, much more than the 10 days that initiates a recall petition in the constituency.

Mr Benton was caught out offering to lobby on behalf of the gambling industry. 

The committee turned down his appeal against the punishment today.

Assuming the full Commons approves the sanction, it only takes 10 per cent of his constituents to sign the petition triggering a by-election. That threshold has been easily met in all comparable recent cases.

Mr Benton held his seat in 2019 with a majority of just 3,690, much less than the majorities comfortably overturned by Labour elsewhere, most recently in Wellingborough, where a Tory lead of more than 18,000 votes was wiped out this month.

Labour’s candidate in Blackpool is Communications Workers Union official Chris Webb, considered to be on the left of the party.

Labour was putting pressure on Mr Benton to quit today without waiting for the recall petition process to run its course.

Shadow cabinet office minister Jonathan Ashworth said that he “should do the decent thing and resign, saving the people of Blackpool South a lengthy recall petition that would leave them without the representation they deserve.

“This is yet another by-election caused by Tory scandal. Britain deserves better than this carousel of Conservative chaos.”