MPS would face criminal record checks before they are elected under calls to beef up oversight of politicians.
The demands come as Labour MP Dan Norris faces serious sexual abuse allegations and amid claims that another MP committed a sex assault before being elected.
It also emerged that Reform UK MP James McMurdock had a conviction for attacking a former girlfriend before being elected.
Under current rules, there are no criminal record checks of anyone who puts themselves forward as a parliamentary candidate.
And once elected, an MP – and his or her spouse – is given a Commons pass without the security checks that Parliamentary staff and other passholders undergo.
Last night MPs said the system was ‘not fit for purpose’ and called for criminal record checks of candidates.
But it is the responsibility of candidates themselves to make declarations of anything that could disqualify them.
It was also possible in practice for someone to use a false name without real checks.
One source said: ‘It’s ridiculous that you have to prove who you are to vote but you don’t have to do so to stand as a parliamentary candidate.’
The Mail on Sunday revealed last week how Mr Norris was arrested over what police said were alleged non-recent child sex offences said ‘to have occurred in the 2000s’ and an alleged rape ‘from the 2020s’.
Separately, another MP is under police investigation over an alleged sex assault at the private members’ Groucho club in London in August 2023, just under a year before being elected last July.
Independent MP Rosie Duffield said: ‘I see no reason why election candidates and MPs would object to criminal record checks.
‘We often visit schools, hospitals, care homes and hold advice surgeries with vulnerable constituents. They have every right to feel their safety is paramount.’
Labour MP Jo White said: ‘Trust in politicians is at an all time low. We have a job to do to rebuild it.’