Two weeks ago the Guardian revealed that Craig Williams, the prime minister’s parliamentary private secretary, had placed a £100 bet on a July election three days before Rishi Sunak named the date. Mr Williams, the Conservative candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, admitted to having “a flutter” on the timing of the general election, which he said was a “huge error of judgment”. But he has refused to answer questions about whether he was privy to inside information before placing the bet.
Instead of suspending Mr Williams’s campaign, Mr Sunak professed that it was “disappointing” and hid behind the Gambling Commission’s inquiry into the bet. It’s possible that Mr Williams did not know the date of the election and was having a punt. Like Nero, Mr Sunak is fiddling while Rome burns.
