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.
Four senior Tories are under investigation by the Gambling Commission for bets placed on a July election. It is reported that two of these – Tony Lee, who is the party’s campaign director, and Nick Mason, the party’s data officer – have taken a leave of absence from their roles. Mr Lee’s wife, Laura Sanders, is also under investigation, but is still standing for the party in Bristol North West. Some deny wrongdoing and the facts are unclear. But if there were any doubts in voters’ minds about Mr Sunak’s lack of leadership, they have been wiped away by this sorry episode.
It has now emerged that the commission is investigating “many more” people. A police officer, part of Mr Sunak’s close-protection security team, has also been arrested in connection with the inquiry into bets placed on a July election. In contrast to Mr Sunak’s inaction, the officer has been suspended. Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, compared the row to the Partygate scandal and the damaging “perception that we operate outside the rules that we set for others”.
Thinking that one could get away with placing a bet on the election date using inside information seems both stupid and arrogant. Ignorance is no defence in law, and pride comes before the proverbial fall. The maximum sentence is two years in prison. However, the watchdog’s bark is worse than its bite. Since its establishment in 2005, the commission has prosecuted only one case of cheating. The prime minister looks increasingly panicked over the issue, as his colleagues line up to say that he needs to get a grip. Mr Sunak says the Tories are running their internal inquiries “in parallel” with the regulator’s investigation, adding that he is “not aware of any other” Conservative election candidates who have come to the commission’s attention.
Mr Sunak ought to get tough, not least to stem the rising tide of disenchantment among the Tories. The Conservatives look as if they are heading for possibly their worst parliamentary result ever. They have only themselves to blame – and it perhaps represents a fitting payback for the lies, cronyism and rule-breaking of the past five years. But it also points to a graver problem for the country, beset by increasing levels of political distrust and a shift towards populist rightwing politics. Mr Sunak is not helping – and he is learning that while the rot sets in slowly, once it does, it is hard to reverse.
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