The political career of a Tory MP who was arrested after allegedly assaulting his pregnant wife is in tatters as he faces a battle to keep his seat.

Andrew Pelling, 48, the MP for Central Croydon, was arrested on Tuesday after a complaint by his wife, Lucy, 26, who is seven weeks pregnant. She left the home that they shared in South London on Sunday.

After the incident, Mr Pelling was released on bail until October 1. Mrs Pelling, who is believed to have taken out an injunction banning her husband from further contact with her, said yesterday that she would “absolutely not” go back to him.

“This is it now,” she said. “The marriage was unhappy from the outset. I’m just very, very upset at the moment. I can’t go into any details because I don’t want to prejudice a possible court case. I just want to get on with my life now – I’ve got a baby to think about.”

She said that she had been “100 per cent supportive of his political life” but that his future at Westminster was “a decision for Andrew and the party”.

The Conservative Party said that the MP had not yet been reselected to fight the seat that he won at the last election with a majority of 75.

What would otherwise have been a routine process is now fraught with danger for Mr Pelling. Friends and colleagues said that he was under no illusions about the threat. “He knows that he’s in deep doo-doo,” one associate said.

Mr Pelling refused to comment yesterday. Mrs Pelling, who is his second wife, is staying with her parents a short distance away. She has said that their marriage is over.

She was a research assistant for Mr Pelling and married him last November after his acrimonious divorce from his first wife, Sanae Umeda Pelling.

It is believed that Mr Pelling was told about his wife’s pregnancy at the weekend. She says that the news was not a surprise and that the couple had been trying for a baby.

Mr Pelling left their home in South Croydon with his lawyer in the mid-morning yesterday and returned alone just after 1.30pm. He said: “I have no comment to make.”

According to the mother of his wife, Mrs Pelling remained “very upset”.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “A man in his forties has been bailed to return on October 1.”

Mr Pelling’s private life has been the subject of controversy before, after his first wife launched a bitter attack on the former investment banker, who is a member of the London Assembly. His ex-wife, who is the mother of his three children, claimed that he ended their 14-year marriage while she was visiting her dying father in Japan. She said: “He treated me like a doormat. As far as he was concerned, I was there to raise his children and cook his food. His only love is politics.”

Some of the couple’s neighbours voiced their support for Mr Pelling yesterday.

One, who did not want to be named, said: “I could never believe this of him. He is a very decent, very conservative man. I’ve never seen him be aggressive. I’ve never heard any shouting or screaming coming from the house.

“He is a good family man, exceptionally hard-working and always thinking of his children. This is definitely out of character. It’s all very surprising.”

Richard Chatterjee, the parliamentary constituency officer of the local Conservative Association, told a local newspaper: “Andrew is well known as a good public servant and has done a lot for the people. The matter is in the hands of the police now and that’s all I can say.”

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