A senior British minister has likened the latest scandal involving a Conservative candidate accused of betting on election dates to “Partygate,” the series of Covid-19 parties that brought down Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove, in an interview with The Times on Saturday, compared the gambling allegations to the Partygate scandal.
“There seems to be only one rule, for them and for us… and that is the most potentially harmful,” said Mr Gove, who is leaving office at the election after 14 years as an MP.
“It did damage during Partygate and it’s doing damage here,” he added.
Johnson was forced to resign in 2022 after public outrage over revelations that parties were taking place in Downing Street while the country was in national lockdown during the pandemic.
Now another senior Conservative Party figure has been caught up in the latest scandal.
The party’s chief data officer, Nick Mason, has been placed on administrative leave following allegations he made bets on the timing of the election, the PA news agency reported on Saturday.
Mason is under investigation by gambling regulators for placing dozens of bets on election day, The Times reported, and is the fourth Conservative figure implicated in the case.
‘Unbelievable damage’
The party’s campaign chief resigned following reports on Thursday that he and his wife, the Conservative candidate in the July 4 election, were under investigation by the Gambling Commission.
The scandal broke a week ago when Craig Williams, a Conservative candidate and cabinet aide to Mr Sunak, said he was under investigation for placing bets before the general election date was announced.
London police said on Wednesday that one of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s bodyguards had been arrested on suspicion of betting on dates.
Mr Sunak said he was “deeply angry” about the revelations.
“If anyone is found to have breached the rules they will not only face the full penalty of the law but will certainly be expelled from the Conservative party,” he said earlier this week.
Political betting is permitted in the UK, including on election day, but using inside information to bet is illegal.
The survey presents further difficulties for Mr Sunak, whose party has trailed Labour in the opinion polls by some 20 points for nearly two years, raising the prospect of him being ousted from power after 14 years in power.
Mr Gove said those implicated in the gambling scandal were “sapping the energy from the campaign”.
He again drew a comparison to the Partygate scandal, adding that “a small number of individuals have created a very toxic atmosphere for the party.”
“So, while that’s a bad thing in itself, it also destroys the efforts of good people who are currently fighting hard to get Conservative votes.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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