Rishi Sunak withdraws Tory support from candidates accused of election betting

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Rishi Sunak has withdrawn Conservative support for two candidates linked to allegations related to betting on the date of the UK election, after days of intensifying pressure on the prime minister to act.

After standing by Craig Williams and Laura Saunders for several days, Sunak pulled the plug on the candidates on Tuesday morning, in another sign of disarray in the Tory election campaign.

London’s Metropolitan Police also announced that five more officers are under investigation by the Gambling Commission for allegedly placing bets on the timing of the election. A sixth officer was arrested last week.

The Conservative party said: “As a result of ongoing internal inquiries, we have concluded that we can no longer support Craig Williams or Laura Saunders as parliamentary candidates at the forthcoming general election.

“We have checked with the Gambling Commission that this decision does not compromise the investigation that they are conducting, which is rightly independent and ongoing.”

The Met Police said the five additional officers had not been arrested or suspended. “Decisions on whether they will be subject to any restrictions will be taken in due course,” it said.

Unlike the officer arrested last week, who was one of Sunak’s bodyguards, the Met said none of the five under investigation worked in a close protection role.

Saunders, a Tory staffer and wife of the party’s campaign director, is standing in Bristol North West while Williams, a former parliamentary aide to Sunak, is standing in Montgomeryshire.

Because nominations have closed, both will appear on ballot papers as Conservative candidates but they no longer enjoy the party’s official endorsement.

In a statement made after being dropped on Tuesday, Williams said he committed “an error of judgment, not an offence” in placing the bet, adding: “I intend to clear my name”.

Sunak has said he is “extremely angry” about the scandal, but until now he said he wanted to let official investigations into the possible use of privileged information in election betting run their course before taking any disciplinary action.

Asked why Sunak had changed his mind, one Tory official said simply: “Further inquiries.” Asked if other Tories might be linked to the affair in the coming days, the official said: “I don’t know. We find out names from the press.”

The Gambling Commission has widened its probe to look at hundreds of bets placed in the days before Sunak called the election for July 4 and is sifting through wagers — for which individuals stood to gain more than £199 — to identify any potential links to the Conservative party. The Financial Times has previously reported that there was an unusual burst of bets that preceded Sunak’s announcement on May 22.

Andrew Rhodes, chief executive of the Gambling Commission, said the regulator was “diligently investigating” the scandal “independently and without fear or favour”.

Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator, wrote to the Gambling Commission last week asking it to identify people under investigation. 

Rhodes said in his reply to McFadden — released on Tuesday — that the commission would not release the names of the suspects “to protect the integrity of the investigation” and to ensure a fair outcome. He said those contacted by the commission had been asked to treat the matter confidentially. 

“We understand the desire for information. However, to protect the integrity of the investigation and to ensure a fair and just outcome, we are unable to comment on any detail at this time, including the name of any person who may be under suspicion,” he said. 

Sunak had faced strong pressure to suspend the two candidates and a third Tory — Saunders’ husband Tony Lee, who has taken leave of absence from the party’s campaign.

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth, shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: “It is yet another example of Rishi Sunak’s staggeringly weak leadership that it has taken him nearly two weeks to see what was obvious to everyone else.

“Rishi Sunak now needs to come clean with voters across the country and tell them exactly how many of his Conservatives are implicated and who they are.”

The drip-feed of revelations about people being investigated by the Gambling Commission for betting on the July 4 election date has had a corrosive effect on Sunak’s already-floundering campaign.

Michael Gove, levelling up secretary, warned that the scandal was as bad as “Partygate”, in which Boris Johnson and Sunak received criminal penalties over their attendance at lockdown rule-breaking gatherings

The betting dispute was “sucking the oxygen out of the campaign”, Gove told The Sunday Times, adding that it risked “damaging” the party by entrenching the idea that there is “one rule for them and one rule for us”.