Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday repeatedly refused to say when he told a key aide the general election date, as controversy about betting on the vote’s timing continued to dog his campaign.
Sunak told Sky News that answering the question about former Tory candidate Craig Williams would prejudice investigations by the Gambling Commission and London’s Metropolitan Police into the affair.
Williams placed a bet on the date of the election on Sunday May 19, three days before the prime minister’s public announcement on Wednesday May 22.
The former Montgomeryshire MP is one of at least five figures around the Conservative party under investigation about whether they improperly used confidential information to gain an unfair advantage when betting on the general election date.
The capital’s police force late on Wednesday said it was taking over a small number of the investigations into potential cheating in gambling, because the cases might also constitute the more serious offence of misconduct in public office.
Sunak on Tuesday suspended Williams as the Conservative candidate in Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr following an internal investigation. He also suspended Laura Saunders, who is also being investigated, as candidate for Bristol North West.
In a combative interview on Sky News on Thursday, Sunak refused multiple times to answer the question of when he told Williams the date, claiming he did not want to “prejudice” the investigation.
Sam Coates from Sky News told the prime minister that only a jury trial, not an investigation, could be prejudiced by such comments. Sunak still declined to answer, saying: “It’s important whilst there are ongoing independent investigations — including by the police — that those matters are allowed to proceed properly.”
Sunak was speaking after Gambling Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes for the first time set out what potential offences the watchdog was investigating. Rhodes’s comments, in a joint statement with the Met, are his first since the probe became public two weeks ago.
“We are focused on an investigation into confidential information being used to gain an unfair advantage when betting on the date of the general election,” Rhodes said.
He added that the investigation had made “rapid progress so far” and would continue to work with the police to bring the matter to a “just conclusion”.
Williams disclosed the probe’s existence on June 12 when he revealed that he was under investigation. The investigation’s growing scale has dominated the final stage of the election campaign, and the Metropolitan Police disclosed on Thursday that a seventh police officer was under investigation, on top of the six the force had already revealed.
Only one person has so far been arrested in the investigation, an unnamed police officer from Sunak’s close-protection team on suspicion of the misconduct offence.
Most of the betting cases will continue to be investigated by the Gambling Commission under laws that prohibit cheating in betting.
But Detective Superintendent Katherine Goodwin, who is leading the Met investigation, said: “There will . . . be a small number of cases where a broader criminal investigation by the police is required.”
As well as the suspended candidates, the Gambling Commission is known to be investigating betting by three other people associated with the Conservative party. Saunders’s husband, Tony Lee, the Conservative party’s head of campaigns, and Nick Mason, the party’s head of data, have taken leave of absence after their betting came under scrutiny. Russell George, the Conservatives’ Welsh Senedd member for Montgomeryshire, has stepped back from his front bench role after acknowledging he was under investigation.
Sunak said on Thursday that he was “not aware” of any other Tory election candidates being investigated over alleged gambling irregularities beyond the two names already in the public domain.
“If we are made aware of anything untoward by the Gambling Commission we will conduct an internal investigation and take action if necessary,” he told reporters on a visit to Derbyshire. Sunak said these were “serious matters”.
The Gambling Commission has not confirmed the identity of any of the people it is investigating over their betting. The statement said it was investigating potential offences under Section 42 of the Gambling Act. The section makes it an offence to cheat at gambling but does not define cheating.
Additional reporting by George Parker in Derbyshire
