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Rishi Sunak refuses to say what he privately told betting MP about election date

Brexiteer Steve Baker will reportedly launch Tory leadership bid if he holds seat, although he faces uphill battle

UKPrime Minister Rishi Sunak talking to staff during his visit to Denby Pottery Factory, Ripley, while on the General Election campaign trail. Picture date: Thursday June 27, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story POLITICS Election. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire

Mark Paul in London
Thu Jun 27 2024 - 19:19

The political betting scandal was still overshadowing the UK election race as the parties prepared to enter the final weekend of campaigning in advance of next Thursday’s vote, following which Labour is expected to form the next government.

Conservative leader and prime minister Rishi Sunak refused to say on Thursday whether he had told Craig Williams, the MP who was his parliamentary private secretary, the date of the July 4th election before it was publicly announced.

Just three days before the snap election was called, Mr Williams placed a £100 (€118) bet at odds of 5/1 on a July election. The bookie Ladbrokes later referred the bet to the UK’s Gambling Commission, which has the power to examine bets that may have been made using inside information.

The commission launched an investigation into UK election gambling that has since grown to include bets placed by six senior Tories, at least seven London Metropolitan police officers, including one of the prime minister’s bodyguards, and at least one Labour candidate.

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At a campaign event in Derbyshire on Thursday, Mr Sunak was pressed by Sky News over what he had told Mr Williams about the election date. The prime minister insisted that if he answered he could “prejudice the inquiry” being held by the Gambling Commission, although the Sky reporter, Sam Coates, insisted to him live on air that he was in fact free to answer and could only prejudice a jury trial, which this was not.

[ ‘Proper’ to wait for investigations into betting allegations before taking action, says Sunak ]

The prime minister’s handling of the gambling affair has been questioned by some of his own MPs including Steve Baker, a secretary of state in the Northern Ireland Office, who is fighting to defend his seat in Wycombe, where polls suggest Labour is well on course to depose him.

The Huffington Post news site reported on Thursday that Mr Baker, a committed Brexiteer who ended up as one of the UK’s main interlocutors with the Irish Government in the search for a deal, will launch a leadership bid for the Tory party if he holds on to his seat.

“It’s a fact my colleagues sent for me four times to provide leadership through crisis to success – before and after the referendum, in Covid and in relation to the cost of net zero. I’m widely expected to lose my seat. We will see,” Mr Baker told the website.

Elsewhere, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK ditched another candidate after it was revealed he had been a past member of the fringe right British National Party. Reform said Raymond Saint was no longer running with its support in Basingstoke and had failed to tell the party of his past BNP connections.

Polls suggest Labour is on course for a landslide victory in the vote on Thursday, which would bring to an end 14 years of Tory government in Britain.

Mark Paul

Mark Paul

Mark Paul is London Correspondent for The Irish Times

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