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A former minister is to leave the Commons at the next election to take a new job he described as a "once in a lifetime opportunity".
Nigel Griffiths, a former deputy leader of the House, is to take up a new post as director of an international education institution based in London, starting in June.
"It would not be right to delay accepting this position, since I want to give the party time to select a new candidate to fight the forthcoming election," he said.
Griffiths, who is a close ally of the prime minister, has been MP for Edinburgh South since 1987.
He resigned from the frontbench in 2007 to vote against the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent.
Griffiths was targeted by the News of the World last year when it reported that the married MP had sex with another women in a Commons office on Remembrance Day 2008.
The paper obtained photos of the liaison. He later apologised but claimed to have "little recollection of the evening".
So far 131 MPs have announced their retirement at the next election - 84 Labour, 35 Conservative, three Liberal Democrats, three Independents and one each from the SNP and Plaid.
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