Representing the Conservatives was Oliver Letwin, the minister for policy, a man who once left parliamentary papers in a bin in St James's Park.

BBC: Beneath the skin of the Leveson law

Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International and a former News of the World and Sun editor, admitted to a parliamentary committee in 2003 that papers had paid the police for information, though she now says she does not know details of any payments.

ECONOMIST: The courts will decide the price of ending the affair

There are three by-elections: voters in the UK parliamentary constituencies of Corby, Manchester Central, and Cardiff South and Penarth will receive separate ballot papers with which to choose a new MP.

BBC: How the PCC elections work