British MP Malcolm Rifkind to quit security role and leave parliament after cash-for-access sting

Conservative Party lawmaker Sir Malcolm Rifkind has quit as head of the committee overseeing Britain's intelligence services and announced his retirement from parliament, after being caught in a hidden-camera sting appearing to discuss swapping his political influence for money.

Rifkind, a former foreign minister and one of his party's most senior lawmakers, called the allegations against him "contemptible." But said he didn't want the vital work of the Intelligence and Security Committee to be "distracted or affected by controversy as to my personal position".

He also said Tuesday he wouldn't seek re-election as a lawmaker in May's national election.

Rifkind was elected to parliament in 1974 and went on to serve first in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet and then under John Major. Rifkind was caught in a sting along with former Labour Party Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Straw was already planning to leave parliament in May.

The men were secretly filmed by reporters who were posing as representatives of a fictional Hong Kong-based communications agency allegedly seeking top UK politicians to join the firm's advisory board. Rifkind was recorded as saying he could arrange "useful access" to ambassadors, while Straw spoke of using "charm and menace" to change politicians' minds.

Both deny wrongdoing and say they acted within rules that allow legislators to have second incomes, as long as they declare them.