Tory former minister says public wants ‘robust action’ from government on betting scandal
Good morning. We’re at the start of the last full week of the general election campaign, and Rishi Sunak’s campaign, which has been calamity-struck since he announced it soaking wet in a downpour, is still embroiled in the election date betting scandal. Here is our overnight story by Eleni Courea and Matthew Weaver.
This morning Tobias Ellwood, the Tory former minister and candidate in Bournemouth East, said Sunak should be doing more to limit the damage to the party caused by the controversy. Asked if he thought Sunak should have suspended the two candidates who are being investigated by the Gambling Commission over alleged suspect bets, Ellwood replied:
Given the scale of this, as we see now, and the potential for the story to continue to eclipse, to overshadow, the election. I would now agree.
I’m not sure anyone, including the prime minister, could have predicted the number of people involved when the story first broke. The public wants to see clearer, robust action.
Ellwood acknowledged the party faced a problem. He said it was not clear if those people being investigated were “in the room when the [election date] decision was made”, in which case the party could take immediate action. But if they were just responding to Westminster rumours, then it was for the Gambling Commission to decide if they were in the wrong, he said.
But Ellwood said the government could go further to reassure the public. He went on:
Let’s introduce clear rules, as you have in the City in connection to the purchase of stocks and shares for example, let’s prevent any current politician or party professional from placing any bets in the future. That will send a clear message to the public that this sad incident is being taken seriously and it won’t happen again.
Ellwood also said the thought the scandal would cost the Conservative party seats. “I have no doubt about it,” he said.
In a subsequent interview on the Today programme, Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary who is standing down as an MP, was asked if he thought Sunak should have suspended the two candidates being investigated. He replied:
I think what you’re trying to suggest is that someone is guilty until they’re proven innocent and that is not how this works.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is on a visit in south London.
9.20am: Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, are visiting a school in the East Midlands where they will be taking part in a Q&A
10am: Gavin Robinson launches the DUP’s manifesto in Belfast.
10am: The Institute for Fiscal Studies holds a briefing on the parties’ election manifestos.
Morning: Rishi Sunak launches the Scottish Conservatives election in Edinburgh with Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader.
Lunchtime: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a rally in Maidstone.
12.30pm: Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, takes part in a debate with Jonathan Reynolds, her Labour shadow, on Bloomberg TV.
5.30pm: Starmer and Sunak are interviewed back to back by Harry Cole, the paper’s political editor, and an audience of readers on Sun TV.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on X (Twitter). I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use X; I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Key events
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The election date betting scandal first because public when it was reported that Craig Williams, who was Rishi Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary in the last parliament was being investigated over a bet he placed on a July election three days before the election was announced. He told the BBC that was a “huge error of judgment”.
In an interview this morning Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, claimed the party did not know if Williams was acting on the basis of inside knowledge. He told LBC:
It needs to be determined whether or not [Williams] had prior knowledge …
He said he made a bet and that was a mistake. We don’t know and I don’t believe anybody does know, maybe the Gambling Commission do … but we don’t know whether he did that with prior knowledge or whether that was just a hunch or whatever.
Tory former minister says public wants ‘robust action’ from government on betting scandal
Good morning. We’re at the start of the last full week of the general election campaign, and Rishi Sunak’s campaign, which has been calamity-struck since he announced it soaking wet in a downpour, is still embroiled in the election date betting scandal. Here is our overnight story by Eleni Courea and Matthew Weaver.
This morning Tobias Ellwood, the Tory former minister and candidate in Bournemouth East, said Sunak should be doing more to limit the damage to the party caused by the controversy. Asked if he thought Sunak should have suspended the two candidates who are being investigated by the Gambling Commission over alleged suspect bets, Ellwood replied:
Given the scale of this, as we see now, and the potential for the story to continue to eclipse, to overshadow, the election. I would now agree.
I’m not sure anyone, including the prime minister, could have predicted the number of people involved when the story first broke. The public wants to see clearer, robust action.
Ellwood acknowledged the party faced a problem. He said it was not clear if those people being investigated were “in the room when the [election date] decision was made”, in which case the party could take immediate action. But if they were just responding to Westminster rumours, then it was for the Gambling Commission to decide if they were in the wrong, he said.
But Ellwood said the government could go further to reassure the public. He went on:
Let’s introduce clear rules, as you have in the City in connection to the purchase of stocks and shares for example, let’s prevent any current politician or party professional from placing any bets in the future. That will send a clear message to the public that this sad incident is being taken seriously and it won’t happen again.
Ellwood also said the thought the scandal would cost the Conservative party seats. “I have no doubt about it,” he said.
In a subsequent interview on the Today programme, Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary who is standing down as an MP, was asked if he thought Sunak should have suspended the two candidates being investigated. He replied:
I think what you’re trying to suggest is that someone is guilty until they’re proven innocent and that is not how this works.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is on a visit in south London.
9.20am: Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, are visiting a school in the East Midlands where they will be taking part in a Q&A
10am: Gavin Robinson launches the DUP’s manifesto in Belfast.
10am: The Institute for Fiscal Studies holds a briefing on the parties’ election manifestos.
Morning: Rishi Sunak launches the Scottish Conservatives election in Edinburgh with Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader.
Lunchtime: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a rally in Maidstone.
12.30pm: Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, takes part in a debate with Jonathan Reynolds, her Labour shadow, on Bloomberg TV.
5.30pm: Starmer and Sunak are interviewed back to back by Harry Cole, the paper’s political editor, and an audience of readers on Sun TV.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on X (Twitter). I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use X; I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
