As British Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer faced off in their final televised debate on Wednesday night ahead of next week’s general election, a gambling scandal that threatens to become a major source of embarrassment for the ruling Conservative party continues to grow.
It emerged on Wednesday that the Metropolitan police are taking on a more prominent role in investigations into betting made by senior government officials and government officials in the run-up to the upcoming general election.
During a tense exchange with the Prime Minister over plans for tax, immigration and even transgender rights, Starmer criticised senior Conservative leaders who allegedly used inside information to bet on the election date before it was announced, saying it showed “wrong instinct” to bet on the country’s future.
Allegations that some senior party figures bet on the election date – a move Conservative leader Baroness Ruth Davidson has described as akin to political “insider trading” – are likely to haunt the final days of a Conservative government after 14 turbulent years in power.
“Firstly, how vile it is,” Davidson raged on Sky News’ Election Dysfunction podcast last Friday, about the allegations currently hitting her party, which has been led by Chancellor Rishi Sunak since 2022.
Mr Davidson, a former leader of the Scottish Conservative party in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, added: “I’m speechless. I’ve been involved in campaigning for over 15 years and I’m speechless.”
What is this scandal?
Suspicions that Conservative candidates and associates were betting on the date of the July 4 UK general election have been growing since it was revealed two weeks ago that Sunak’s aide, Craig Williams, had bet 100 pounds ($127) that the July vote would take place, just days before Sunak himself announced the date to the British public.
So far five senior Conservative Party members have been named as under investigation by the Gambling Commission for allegedly using internal party information to bet on July’s election.
The GC, the UK government body which regulates the UK’s gambling laws, is believed to be investigating 15 Conservative candidates and members for allegedly betting on the timing of the election.
Separately, in a related move, the Conservative Party’s Scotland secretary, Alistair Jack, admitted to making several small bets around the election date in March and April but insisted he had not broken any rules and said he was not the subject of a Scottish Parliament investigation.
In a further development in the gambling scandal, The Sun reported on Wednesday that another Conservative member, Philip Davies, had bet 8,000 pounds ($10,115) that he would lose his closely contested constituency of Shipley, West Yorkshire, in the next election. Davies told The Sun that he “fully expects” to lose his seat to Labour, who are predicted to win, adding that it was “nobody’s business” if he decided to bet that he would lose.
The Labour Party has not escaped the gambling scandal entirely. Kevin Craig was disqualified from standing for Parliament for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich on Tuesday after it emerged he was the subject of an investigation by the General Electoral Commission for betting that he would lose the next election.
Who are the five Conservative members under investigation for suspected gambling activities?
Williams, who was the first to be named in the Gambling Commission’s (GC) investigation, was standing as the Conservative candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr in Wales at the time he was investigated.
The 39-year-old admitted he made a “significant error of judgement” in trying to make money by betting £100 on election day at 5-to-1 odds, meaning he could have won £500 ($633). He did not say whether he had inside information about election day before placing his bet, but the betting company he bet with, Ladbrokes, refused to register the bet after it was noted he was a “politically exposed person” and referred the matter to the Governor-General.
Laura Sanders was the second senior party figure to come under investigation by the Conservative government while campaigning as the Conservative candidate for Bristol North West. Following her, her husband, Conservative campaign manager Tony Lee, was also placed on administrative leave after it emerged he was under investigation by the government.
Though Williams and Sanders were dropped as candidates by their parties on Tuesday, they are still vying for their respective seats and would run in the House of Representatives as independents if elected.
The Conservative party’s chief data officer, Nick Mason, has become the fourth Conservative member to come to the attention of the General Electoral Commission after allegations emerged that he had made multiple election bets before Mr Sunak announced the date for the general election.
It emerged on Tuesday night that Russell George, a Conservative member of the Welsh Assembly, is the fifth party member to face a parliamentary investigation, despite not standing in the general election himself.
An unnamed police officer who was part of the Prime Minister’s Security Force was arrested on June 17 for allegedly making similar bets. It has since emerged that five more police officers are also under investigation by the GC.
What are the rules when it comes to lawmakers and others using inside information to place bets?
Section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005 specifically prohibits gamblers from using inside information (also known as insider trading) to place bets or provide others with information necessary to place bets on their behalf. This offence is punishable by up to two years in prison.
The Parliamentary Code of Conduct warns MPs against any conduct that could “cause serious damage to the reputation and integrity of the House”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Question Time special on June 20, Mr Sunak himself said the scandal was “very serious and it will of course be properly investigated by the relevant law enforcement agencies”.
Mr Sunak said he was “deeply angry” about the allegations. “The integrity of this process must be respected,” he said. “But what I can say is that if anyone is found to have broken the rules they will not only face the full force of the law but will be expelled from the Conservative party.”
What does this mean for the Conservative campaign?
Sunak’s Conservative Party was already trailing far behind Labour in the opinion polls before the gambling revelations came to light, and it is likely to deal a further blow to the party, with a recent Savanta poll for the Telegraph showing that two-thirds of voters would oppose Conservative candidates gambling on election day.
Moreover, the scandal is just the latest in a series of controversies that have plagued Britain’s ruling Conservative party in recent years and is a sign of a party that has become “complacency and bloated” after 14 years in power, said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.
“As the 19th century statesman Lord Acton once wrote, ‘Power corrupts easily and absolute power corrupts absolutely,'” Bale said, referring to the Conservative party’s many woes, including “Partygate,” the scandal over parties and gatherings that took place in Downing Street, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official residence, in breach of lockdown rules during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
“Labour’s failure to seriously challenge the Conservatives for 10 years has allowed too many Conservative members to sit back and follow the directions of their party leaders for too long, thinking they can get away with murder, as the saying goes,” Mr Bale said.
He added: “But this period of impunity will likely not last long once Labour comes to its senses and voters begin to grow tired of the government’s inability to deliver on basic policy.”
