Patrick Mercer has officially resigned his Newark seat.
A law that dates from 1624 prevents an MP from directly resigning from their position - with only death or disqualification being acceptable reasons for vacating a seat.
However, any MP that wishes to resign has to "accept a paid office of the Crown", a move which disqualifies them from sitting in the House of Commons.
And on Wednesday morning, The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne appointed Patrick Mercer to be Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern.
The holder of this title before Mr Mercer was Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat MP who resigned after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice in February 2013.
Mr Mercer, the former shadow security spokesman, unexpectedly resigned from the Conservative party last June following a BBC Panorama programme alleging he broke lobbying rules.
The report into Mr Mercer's conduct is expected to be released on Thursday but it has been reported it recommends he is banned from Parliament for six months.
Mr Mercer said he wanted to put things right and there was "no point shilly shallying".
He said: "As an ex-soldier I believe that when I have got something wrong you have got to fess up and get on with it.
"No point in shilly shallying and trying to avoid it. What's happened has happened and I'm ashamed of it."
Mr Mercer said he was going to do what he could to "put it right" for the people of Newark and for his wife and family "who have been under such pressure for the last year".
He added: "With a great heaviness of heart – and I'm hoping that the people of Newark will be able to tolerate me in the future, I'm hoping that they will – I'm going to resign my seat of God's county of Nottinghamshire in the town of Newark and I hope that my successor, who has been well and carefully chosen, will be the Conservative candidate."
