Tories found to have broken betting rules will be booted out of party, says Sunak

ITV News Political Correspondent Shehab Khan looks at what this could mean for the prime minister.

Rishi Sunak has said he was "incredibly angry" to learn about allegations that Tory figures bet on the election date and vowed they would be "booted out of the Conservative Party" if found to have broken the rules.

The prime minister is facing calls to suspend two of his election candidates with links to Downing Street.

Laura Saunders and Craig Williams are being investigated for allegedly betting on the date of the election before it was announced.

During BBC’s Question Time special on Thursday, the prime minister said whoever is found to have broken the rules “should face the full force of the law”.

"These investigations are ongoing, they are widely confidential, one of them is a criminal investigation that’s being conducted by the police... (the) integrity of that process should be respected," he said.

“What I can tell you is if anyone is found to have broken the rules, not only should they face the full consequences of the law, I will make sure that they are booted out of the Conservative Party.”

Laura Saunders previously worked at Conservative Campaign HQ, and is married to the party's director of campaigning, Tony Lee, who is also being investigated by the Gambling Commission. Lee took a leave of absence from his role on Wednesday.

Saunders “will be cooperating with the Gambling Commission”, according to a solicitor’s statement.

Last week, Sunak's parliamentary private secretary, Craig Williams - who is also the Conservative candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr - was revealed to be under investigation by the commission, after he "put a flutter" on when the election would take place.

It comes after the Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday that one of the prime minister's protection officers had been arrested over alleged bets after it was contacted by the gambling watchdog.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the PM to to suspend Saunders.

“This candidate should be suspended and it’s very telling that Rishi Sunak has not already done that," he said on Thursday.

Starmer said if a Labour candidate had used inside information to place a bet on the election, “their feet would not have touched the floor” on the way out.

“There’s a wider point here that you touched on, which is we’ve now had 14 years of chaos, of division, of politics being about self-entitlement, and politics needs to be about service, about public service," he added.

Reacting to the allegations about Saunders, cabinet minister Michael Gove said "if someone had inside information and they used that to place a bet - that's bad."

When asked if Williams and Saunders should be suspended, Gove said: "we should allow the investigation to pursue its own course."

In response to the latest allegations, regarding Bristol North West candidate Saunders, a Conservative spokesman said: "We have been contacted by the Gambling Commission about a small number of individuals.

"As the Gambling Commission is an independent body, it wouldn't be proper to comment further, until any process is concluded."

Saunders was the head of the international department at the Conservative Party, working with London embassies and the Tories’ sister parties overseas.

She had previously worked on organising campaign visits in the 2017 and 2019 elections.

In a statement released on Saunders’ behalf, Nama Zarroug, a solicitor at Astraea Linskills, said: “As the Conservative Party has already stated, investigations are ongoing.

“Ms Saunders will be co-operating with the Gambling Commission and has nothing further to add.

“It is inappropriate to conduct any investigation of this kind via the media, and doing so risks jeopardising the work of the Gambling Commission and the integrity of its investigation.

“The publication of the BBC’s story is premature and is a clear infringement of Ms Saunders’ privacy rights. She is considering legal action against the BBC and any other publishers who infringe her privacy rights.”

Liberal Democrats deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Mr Sunak "must find his backbone and suspend Laura Saunders from the Conservative party whilst this investigation is ongoing".

She added: "It would be an utter disgrace if Conservative politicians were shown to be more focused on turning a quick buck rather than the needs of the country.

"The Conservative party has proven itself utterly unfit for office. Voters are sick to the back teeth of this endless carousel of chaos, sleaze and scandal."

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The Met said that the protection officer in question was bailed pending further inquiries, after they were taken into custody on Monday on suspicion of misconduct in a public office.

They have also been removed from operational duties.

The Tories have now deleted a gambling-related ad which was posted on X just hours before the latest development in the election betting scandal broke.

The Conservative official X account had posted a video on Wednesday afternoon showing a spinning roulette, with the caption: "If you bet on Labour, you can never win."

The alleged incidents of election betting have been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which said it will "make a decision on the level of IOPC involvement in due course".

The Gambling Commission said in a statement: "Currently the commission is investigating the possibility of offences concerning the date of the election.

"This is an ongoing investigation, and the commission cannot provide any further details at this time."

Misconduct in a public office "concerns serious wilful abuse or neglect of the power or responsibilities", according to the Crown Prosecution Service's (CPS) website.

Judges, bishops, MPs, civil servants, army officers, prison staff and police constables are among those who can be be accused of the offence.

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