Rishi Sunak ‘incredibly angry’ over allegations of ‘really serious’ election date bets | Politics News

Rishi Sunak said he is “incredibly angry” to learn of allegations that Conservative candidates placed bets on the election date, calling it a “really serious matter”.

The Prime Minister told the BBC’s Question Time leader’s special that “it is right that they are being investigated by the relevant authorities” and he is “clear that if anyone has broken the rules they should face [the] full force of the law.”

Asked why the suspects had not been suspended, Sunak said an investigation would have to be carried out first – but anyone found guilty would be “expelled” from the party.

Most recent election: BBC Question Time hosting party leaders

Two conservative candidates are being investigated by the Gambling Commission regarding alleged bets placed on the July 4th contest date.

Laura Saunders, candidate for Bristol North West, has worked for the party since 2015 and is married to Conservative Party campaigns director Tony Lee.

Saunders previously said she will “cooperate with the Gambling Commission’s investigation”, while her husband “took a leave of absence” from his role on Wednesday night, a Conservative Party spokesperson told Sky News.

The revelation came a week after Craig Williams, the Prime Minister’s close parliamentary aide, the Conservative candidate in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, admitted to having put a “vibration” in the electionsaying this resulted in “some routine investigations” with which he was “fully” cooperating.

The Prime Minister close protection officer was also arrested and suspended due to alleged bets on the timing of the election.

And a gaming industry source told Sky News that “more names” are being looked at, although the police are “not involved” in these cases.

An audience member asked Sunak, to applause, whether the allegations are “the absolute epitome of the lack of ethics we have had to tolerate from the Conservative Party for years and years”.

He responded: “I was extremely angry to learn of these allegations. It is a really serious matter.”

“I want to make it very clear that if someone broke the rules, they should face the full force of the law.”

Asked why the candidates were not suspended while investigations take place, Sunak said “the integrity of that process must be respected”.

He added: “What I can say is that if anyone breaks the rules, not only must they face the full consequences of the law, but I will also ensure that they are expelled from the Conservative Party.”

Calls to suspend conservative candidates

Labor Party campaign sources told Sky News they noticed the chances of a July election diminishing the day before Sunak announced it on May 22.

Earlier, Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer called for Saunders to be suspended and said it was “very telling” that Sunak had not yet done so.

“If it was one of my candidates, they would have left and their feet would not have touched the ground,” he added.

Sunak faced many questions about trust during the BBC’s grilling, with the first audience member asking if he would “confess to a bit of embarrassment” after having five prime ministers in the last seven years and the UK becoming something of a “momentary of international ridicule”. .

He said “mistakes were clearly made” and asked the public to judge him over his last 18 months in office.

He faced cries of “shame” when he launched an attack on the “foreign court” – the European Court of Human Rights – and also insisted he was happy to have called the election when he did, despite his poll standing having fallen further since then. .

Having announced the date of the elections in a context of a 20-point deficit, the prime minister was unable to recover ground in a campaign dominated by political gaffes – notably his early departure from a D-Day event.

The gambling scandal was the latest blow, following multiple projections of a historic Labor Party landslide and a series of major figures – from a Conservative donor to a former Conservative minister – announcing they would support Keir Starmer for the first time when voting day arrived. .

Responding to his BBC performance, Lib Dem Education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said the Prime Minister had “gone from dodging D-Day to making betting mistakes”.

“If he was really angry about this scandal, these conservative candidates would have been suspended.”

Pat McFadden, Labor National Campaign Coordinator, said his “performance tonight was an abject failure”.

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