Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street

Minister calls for Conservative candidates to be suspended over betting scandal

A serving minister is urging Rishi Sunak to suspend the Conservative candidates involved in the betting scandal

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker has said he would suspend anyone who bet on the timing of the election.

Speaking to ITV’s Peston on Monday evening, Baker said: “I would call them up and ask them, ‘Did you do it?’ And if they did it, then they are suspended.”

Baker added that the “prime minister would have to answer why he hasn’t done it. I haven’t got inside information on why the prime minister hasn’t done it.”

It comes after senior Tory and former defence minister Tobias Ellwood also called for the suspension of the two Conservative candidates who allegedly placed bets on the election date.

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Ellwood said he had “no doubt” that the controversy will cost his party seats at next week’s election, as he urged the PM to withdraw formal party backing from Craig Williams and Laura Saunders.

Questioned on this point on Monday morning, Ellwood told the BBC: “Given the scale of this as we see now, and the potential for this story to continue to eclipse, to overshadow the election, I would now agree [we need to suspend Williams and Saunders].”

In total, four Conservative candidates and officials are currently being investigated by the Gambling Commission — the last one named was the party’s chief data officer, Nick Mason.

This latest revelation, first reported by The Sunday Times, alleged Mason had placed dozens of bets with potential winnings worth thousands of pounds. 

The news came after it emerged that Tony Lee, the party’s director of campaigns, and his wife Laura Saunders, the candidate for Bristol North West, are also under investigation by the Gambling Commission — alongside Craig Williams, the PM’s parliamentary private secretary and candidate in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr.

The Conservatives have launched their own inquiry into whether politicians or officials gambled on the timing of the election, Rishi Sunak confirmed on Tuesday, as the prime minister denied that he had placed any bets himself.

The PM told reporters he was not aware of any further candidates being looked into and was not himself being investigated, saying he had never bet on a political event.

However, Sunak is still refusing to suspend Williams and Saunders, insisting he “will act on any relevant findings or information” from both the Conservative and Gambling Commission investigations.

On Monday, Labour leader Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of trying to “kick this [scandal] into the long grass on the other side of the election.” He argued an investigation into who had placed bets should have been launched last week and need “only take half an hour”.

Gamble-gate, Starmer added, “goes to the heart of what the Tories have become”.

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