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| Former Tory MP Mercer to be suspended from Commons | Former Tory MP Mercer to be suspended from Commons |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A former Tory MP is to be suspended from the House of Commons for six months for allegedly asking questions in parliament in return for money. | |
| Patrick Mercer was filmed by undercover reporters last year apparently agreeing to set up a parliamentary group to push for Fiji to return to the Commonwealth. | Patrick Mercer was filmed by undercover reporters last year apparently agreeing to set up a parliamentary group to push for Fiji to return to the Commonwealth. |
| Mr Mercer has sat as an independent MP since the allegations first emerged. | Mr Mercer has sat as an independent MP since the allegations first emerged. |
| The standards committee of MPs will announce the results of a probe into his conduct on Thursday. | |
| But the committee met on Tuesday and its decision was reported by The Week magazine this afternoon. | |
| A Westminster source has confirmed to the BBC that the report of a six-month sanction is correct. | |
| The Sunday Times reported last week that Mr Mercer was considering standing down immediately and forcing a by-election in his Newark constituency if he was suspended. | |
| The BBC's deputy political editor James Landale said this would be a "huge headache" for the Conservatives if it happened. | |
| Although the Conservatives have a majority of 16,000 in the Nottinghamshire constituency, the seat would be a prime target for UKIP at a time when it is soaring in the polls, he added. | |
| The UKIP leader Nigel Farage has told the BBC he would consider standing as the party's candidate if there were to be a by-election soon. | |
| Mr Mercer resigned the Tory whip last year after a report by BBC's Panorama claimed that he broke Parliament's lobbying rules by accepting £4,000 to lobby for business interests in Fiji. | |
| Panorama alleged that he had submitted five parliamentary questions in relation to his paid work as a lobbyist for a fake company that the programme had set up, in conjunction with the Daily Telegraph. | |
| Parliamentary rules prohibit MPs from accepting money "to ask a parliamentary question, table a motion, introduce a bill, table an amendment to a motion or a bill, or urge colleagues or ministers to do so". | |
| The Newark MP said he took the money for consultancy work outside Parliament but referred himself to Parliament's standards watchdog. | |
| The BBC has tried to contact Mr Mercer but he is not responding to messages. |