Scott Benton Independent[a] Chris Webb Labour A by-election took place on 2 May 2024 in the UK Parliament constituency of Blackpool South, the same day as local elections in England and Wales.

[1][2] Benton had been suspended for 35 days from the House of Commons after being caught in a newspaper sting operation offering lobbying services for payment.

In the 2019 general election it was won by Conservative candidate Scott Benton, who defeated the incumbent Labour MP Gordon Marsden.

[8] In April 2023 The Times published an article resulting from a sting operation alleging that Benton was willing to table parliamentary questions, leak documents and lobby ministers on behalf of gambling companies in return for "thousands of pounds per month".

[15] Benton resigned as an MP on 25 March 2024, terminating the recall petition thirteen days into the signing period.

[2] Issues in the by-election included "levelling-up",[18] social deprivation,[19] overstretched NHS,[20] homelessness,[21] low investment,[22] crime, anti-social behaviour,[23] and child poverty.

[33] Cregan was previously a Labour councillor in Tower Hamlets, but defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2017 over Brexit.

[39] Perennial candidate Howling Laud Hope stood for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.

[43] Psephologist John Curtice likened this and other recent results to elections in the years before Labour's landslide win in 1997.