ALISTER Jack should be barred from taking a seat in the House of Lords after he admitted to gambling on the date of the General Election, the First Minister has said.
John Swinney spoke out against the outgoing Scottish Secretary after he told press he had won more than £2000 betting on the election – only to later claim that was a “joke” and insist he had not placed any bets “during May”.
As backlash grew, Jack was forced to admit that he had placed three bets on the General Election and won £100.
Professor Dan Hough, the director of the Sussex Centre for the Study of Corruption (SCSC), suggested on Wednesday that bets from top Tories like Jack could constitute a “criminal offence” due to the likelihood that they were placed with insider knowledge.
However, Jack has denied any wrongdoing and said that due to the timing of his bet – which was placed in April and not May – he is not under investigation by the Gambling Commission.
Speaking to The National while on the campaign trail on Thursday, SNP leader Swinney said that “what’s happened with Alister Jack is completely unethical”.
The First Minister went on: “He’s sat round a Cabinet table and he’s been party to discussions around all sorts of questions which will have had bearing on the election and he’s taken that information from the Cabinet table and placed bets on at the bookies.
“It’s completely and utterly unethical.
“So, I’ve thought for a long time Alister Jack was unfit to be a minister by his conduct.
“But he’s certainly unfit to go to the House of Lords – and there should be no question of going to the House of Lords after this.”
In May 2023, Jack was nominated for a life peerage by his close ally Boris Johnson, in the disgraced former prime minister’s resignation honours list.
Accepting the seat in the Lords would have triggered a by-election in his Dumfries and Galloway constituency, and Jack declined to take it.
Instead, there were rumours of a "sleazy backroom deal with Rishi Sunak" to delay the peerage.
As a result, Jack is widely expected to appear on the current Prime Minister’s resignation honours list – which should follow the General Election at which he is standing down from the Commons.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Sunak repeatedly refused to say whether he told his parliamentary aide about the date of the election, as the Metropolitan Police said they were investigating a “small number” of bets on the July 4 poll.
Police are examining whether offences beyond cheating using inside information had been committed, while the Gambling Commission said it was making “rapid progress” in its parallel investigation.
So far five Conservatives are known to have been caught up in the Gambling Commission inquiry, including Sunak’s former parliamentary aide, Craig Williams.
The Prime Minister withdrew Tory support for Williams in his bid to be returned as MP for the Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr seat after he admitted having a “flutter” on the election date.
BBC reports have suggested as many as 15 Tory candidates and officials could be under investigation.
