Ex-minister: ‘No doubt’ Tory betting scandal will cost the party seats

A senior Tory has admitted the party are set to suffer at the general election due to the betting scandal that has engulfed Rishi Sunak.

Tobias Ellwood, a former defence minister, said there was ‘no doubt’ the row over alleged bets on the date of the election would cost the Tories seats.

A string of Conservatives have been revealed to be under investigation by the Gambling Commission amid claims about wagers placed on a July election.

They include Tory chief data officer Nick Mason, director of campaigning Tony Lee, Mr Lee’s wife and parliamentary candidate Laura Saunders, and Craig Williams – also an election candidate and a close aide to the Prime Minister.

One of Mr Sunak’s police protection officers has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office and is also subject to an investigation by the regulator.

The PM is under growing pressure over the betting row, with Mr Ellwood saying voters wanted to see ‘clear robust action now’.

He also demanded politicians or party employees be banned from placing any political bets.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Ellwood joined those calling for Mr Sunak to withdraw support from Ms Saunders and Mr Williams as Tory election candidates.

He said: ‘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.

‘I’m not sure anyone including the prime minister could have predicted the number of people involved when this story first broke.

‘The public want to see clear robust action now.’

He added: ‘Let’s prevent any current politician or party professional from placing any bets in the future.

‘That would send a clear message to the public that this sad incident is being taken seriously and won’t happen again.’

Mr Sunak said last week he was ‘incredibly angry’ to hear of the betting allegations and vowed to boot out Tory candidates if they are found to have broken rules.

But the PM has ignored calls to suspend the candidates while the investigation is ongoing, and also refused to say how many Tories are being probed.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has accused Mr Sunak of a ‘total lack of leadership’ and claimed he would have suspended those under investigation if they had been in his party.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland Secretary, this morning accused Labour of trying to put ‘undue influence’ on the Gambling Commission.

He told Times Radio: ‘It’s not confirming or denying the identity of any individuals concerned and it’s right that it has an investigation, it’s an independent body.

‘I actually think I saw that the leader of Labour’s campaign Pat McFadden wrote to try and put some undue influence on the Gambling Commission over the weekend.

‘I think that is actually pretty concerning in itself, Labour trying to lean on yet another independent body like it lent on the Speaker of the House of Commons not to have a vote on Gaza.

‘And I think people are beginning to see what a Labour government would actually be like in the United Kingdom.’

In a round of TV and radio interviews, Mr Heaton-Harris suggested the Conservative Party does not know whether Mr Williams had insider knowledge when he placed his bet on the election or whether it was ‘just a hunch’.

‘There’s both a principle point and a practical point there,’ he told LBC, when pressed on why the Tory candidate has not had party backing withdrawn.

‘It needs to be determined whether or not he had prior knowledge.

‘He said he made a bet and that was a mistake. We don’t know and I don’t believe anybody does know, maybe the Gambling Commission do… but we don’t know whether he did that with prior knowledge or whether that was just a hunch or whatever.’

Asked how damaging the scandal was, he added: ‘It’s not great because we should be talking about how we’re going to lower taxes and how we’re going to lower immigration.’

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said the Conservative Party was hiding ‘behind the Gambling Commission’ and it was ‘entirely reasonable’ for Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator to write to the watchdog.

He told Times Radio: ‘The audacity of the Conservative Party to hide behind the Gambling Commission, to not answer straightforward questions of the Prime Minister about who knew what, who’s implicated, who’s under investigation, and what he’s going to do about it.’

Mr Streeting added: ‘I think people should greet with enormous suspicion, the fact that the Conservatives are trying to cover up in the middle of an election campaign, which of their candidates is under investigation for serious wrongdoing.’