PM deals with sex scandal and defection

Brooks Newmark, 56, is married and a father of five.

British Prime Minister David Cameron was plunged into a double crisis after one of his ministers resigned over a sex scandal and another MP defected to Ukip.

On the eve of the Conservative Party's annual conference, Brooks Newmark quit as the Minister for Civil Society after he was caught sending an explicit photograph of himself over the internet to someone he believed was a woman. Sources said Newmark sent the image to someone posing as a user of a social networking website as part of a tabloid newspaper sting operation.

The revelations will be particularly damaging for the Prime Minister's effort to win more support from women. Newmark is co-chairman and founder of the Tory campaign "Women2Win" which aims to get more women elected to Parliament.

In a statement, Newmark, the MP for Braintree said: "I have decided to resign as Minister for Civil Society having been notified of a story to be published in a Sunday newspaper. I would like to appeal for the privacy of my family to be respected at this time. I remain a loyal supporter of this Government."

A Downing St spokesman said Rob Wilson, a former aide to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, would take his place as minister.

Newmark, 56, a married father of five, initiated a private message conversation on a social networking website and sent a graphic picture exposing himself while wearing a pair of paisley pyjamas, according the Mirror. He sent a text message to an undercover reporter, asking if she would like to meet him at the party conference.

The resignation came hours after Mark Reckless, MP for Rochester and Strood, announced on television that he was defecting to the UK Independence Party. He became the second Tory MP to defect to Ukip since the 2010 election, after Douglas Carswell announced last month that he was standing down.

Reckless told delegates at the Ukip conference in Doncaster that the Conservative leadership was "part of the problem that is holding our country back". Appearing to a rapturous reception, he said voters felt "ripped off".