One of the UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron’s most senior lawmakers yesterday said he would quit parliament and resign as head of a powerful security committee after becoming embroiled in a cash-for-access scandal.

The decision by Malcolm Rifkind, a former foreign minister, is embarrassing for Cameron’s Conservatives less than three months before a neck-and-neck national election, but they hope its decisiveness and speed will draw a line under the affair.

Rifkind, whose committee oversees the work of Britain’s intelligence services, was secretly filmed offering his services for cash to a fake Chinese company, boasting he had “useful” access to foreign ambassadors.

Jack Straw, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party, was caught in the same media sting, which revived memories of a similar 2010 episode when former ministers were recorded saying they could influence government policy for cash.

There was no suggestion that either Rifkind or Straw had done anything illegal. But with memories still fresh of a 2009 scandal which saw lawmakers’ exaggerated expense claims dominate the media, the incident feeds the view that politicians are more interested in making money than serving the public.

Rifkind, who denies wrongdoing, had planned to stand for re-election on May 7 in a safe Conservative seat in London, but said the imbroglio had made him change his mind.