Friday, November 22, 2024

Conservative campaigning chief on leave as election bet claims are investigated

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A police officer working in Mr Sunak’s close protection team has also been arrested as part of a separate investigation into bets placed on the timing of the election.

Sir Keir said the Prime Minister should suspend the candidates who are being investigated and give a full account of who knew he was planning a July 4 poll.

“As a candidate of mine, they’d be gone, their feet wouldn’t have touched the floor. It’s very telling of Rishi Sunak that he hasn’t taken that action,” he said.

“He needs to account for exactly who knew what. But when you’ve got a candidate standing for election in two weeks who’s involved, they’ve got to go, they’ve got to be suspended.

“I don’t know why he hasn’t done that. I think it is a real measure of his leadership or lack of leadership.”

Pat McFadden, Labour’s campaign coordinator, also called on Mr Sunak to withdraw support from the two Conservative candidates who are being investigated over the allegations.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, he questioned why the police protection officer had been suspended,  but the two Tory parliamentary hopefuls had not been.

Gove – It doesn’t look great

“Surely you can understand that – yet again – this looks as though there is one rule for members of the Tory party and another rule for everyone else, specifically on this occasion a serving police officer,” he wrote.

“If you can see how wrong that is, will you now at the very least remove your support for Mr Williams and Ms Saunders as Conservative election candidates?”

Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, admitted on Thursday that the situation “obviously doesn’t look great” for the Tories.

Speaking to reporters, he said that the alleged bets were a betrayal of trust in the Prime Minister”, adding: “It’s beyond embarrassing, it’s wrong.

“Obviously if, as a private individual, I put a bet on the Grand National or on the Euros, that’s one thing – but using privileged inside information is wrong.”

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