- author, Henry Zeffman
- role, Chief Political Correspondent, BBC News
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The Conservative Party has withdrawn its support for two candidates under investigation for allegedly betting on the date of the general election.
Both Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr candidate Craig Williams and Bristol North West candidate Laura Saunders are under investigation by the Gambling Commission.
The pair will still stand under the Conservative banner but the decision means that if elected they will run as independents, pending the outcome of the investigation.
The Metropolitan police said the Gambling Commission was investigating allegations against five more officers following the arrest of one of the Prime Minister’s closest officers.
Following the Conservative decision to withdraw his support, Mr Williams posted a video to his Montgomeryshire and Glyndőr voters on X, saying he still intended to stand in the constituency.
“I made an error of judgment, I did not commit a crime,” he said, adding, “I would like to apologize again directly.”
“I am cooperating fully with the Gambling Commission’s rolling investigation and intend to clear my name.”
“Due process is important in all of this – it’s what distinguishes the UK from other countries – and we need to allow the commission to do its job.”
A spokesman for Mr Sanders said last week that he would cooperate with the Gambling Commission and had nothing further to add.
A Conservative spokesman said: “Following an ongoing internal investigation, we have concluded that we cannot support Craig Williams and Laura Sanders as parliamentary candidates in the upcoming general election.”
“We have checked with the Gambling Commission and they can confirm that this decision does not prejudice their ongoing investigation, which of course continues independently.”
Responding to news that support for the candidate had been withdrawn, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “Why didn’t they do this a week ago?”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “When these scandals came to light Rishi Sunak should have taken immediate action but he has hesitated and procrastinated.”
Earlier, two sources told the BBC that the party’s executive committee was holding emergency talks about how to respond to the incident.
Two Conservative staff have also been placed on administrative leave after it emerged they were under investigation by the Gambling Commission.
The police officer providing security for Sunak was arrested on suspicion of official misconduct and is now on restricted duty at the Royal and Specialist Protection Command.
A Metropolitan police spokesman confirmed that five more officers were suspected of betting on the timing of the general election and were being investigated by the Gambling Commission.
The Metropolitan police said: “Only one officer remains under criminal investigation.”
“However, we have been given information by the Gambling Commission that a further five officers were placing bets in relation to election timing.
“No officers have been arrested but a report has been made to the Metropolitan police’s Professional Standards Unit.”
The spokesman added that the officers included at least one from the Royal and Specialist Command, as well as the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Defence Command and the Central-West Base Command.
He added that none of the officers were on personal security duty and a decision would be made in due course on whether to impose any restrictions.
The Metropolitan police have denied reports that they leaked the names of people being investigated over allegations of election day gambling.
