House of Commons Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans is facing fresh sex offence allegations after being arrested for a third time.
The 55-year-old is being questioned on suspicion of indecent assault and sexual touching against two men in their 20s.
The Tory MP for Ribble Valley has previously been arrested by Lancashire Police on suspicion of rape, sexual assault and three indecent assaults against five men, also all in their 20s.
The force said: “A 55-year-old man from Pendleton in Lancashire has today answered his bail following his arrest in May on suspicion of rape and sexual assault and in June on suspicion of three further offences of indecent assault.
“He has subsequently today been arrested on suspicion of indecent assault and sexual touching of two further victims.”
Swansea-born Mr Evans’ initial arrest relates to offences alleged to have been committed in Pendleton, Lancashire, between July 2009 and March 2013. The three counts of indecent assault are alleged to have happened in Blackpool and London between 2003 and 2011. The two fresh allegations relate to alleged incidents in London between 2002 and 2009.
Mr Evans arrived at Preston police station in a silver Jaguar XF driven by his solicitor.
He smiled and said: “Thanks for coming” to members of the press who had gathered outside.
Mr Evans was met inside the station by detectives who will question him throughout the day.
He dismissed the original allegations against him as “completely false”, and said they had been made by two people he had “regarded as friends”.
In June, after his second arrest, he said: “I continue to refute all allegations.”
He has stepped aside from his Speaker duties since his arrest, but has continued to work as an MP.
He was one of three deputy speakers elected in a secret ballot of MPs in 2010. Later that year he came out as gay, saying he was ”tired of living a lie”.
Mr Evans was a vice chairman of the Conservative Party from 1999 to 2001. When Iain Duncan Smith became party leader in 2001, he was promoted to the shadow cabinet as shadow Welsh secretary - a post he held for two years.
PA