Tory hopeful James Cracknell urges colleagues to 'own up' over betting scandal

'Shower of s**t' is how Tory hopeful and Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell described the damage done to Sunak's campaign by the party's betting scandal, as ITV Politics Correspondent Romilly Weeks reports

By Elisa Menendez, ITV News Westminster Producer and Daniel Boal, ITV News Producer

Tory hopeful and former Olympic rower James Cracknell has told ITV News he wants to be able to look "voters in the eyes" after comparing the Conservatives to a "shower of s**t" following the party's alleged betting scandal.

The gold medallist urged his colleagues to "come forward" and "admit they made a mistake".

Five people with links to the prime minister are being investigated over alleged bets on the timing of the date of the General Election.

ITV News understands that on top of the five individuals already being investigated, the gambling watchdog is also looking into "many names" linked to the Conservative Party and the government who bet on the July election.

Doubling down on criticism of colleagues who have allegedly placed bets, Cracknell said: "Two weeks down from the big race, as a group of guys I race with, if we see people behave as the Conservative Party had, we’re a team, we’d be going ‘that team is a shower of s**t’."

It comes after the 52-year-old, who is contesting Colchester for the Tories, posted a video to his Facebook page in which he strongly criticised his own party, but insisted they are still the best way forward.

Those already being investigated are the Conservative's chief data officer Nick Mason, director of campaigning Tony Lee, his wife and Tory candidate Laura Saunders, fellow candidate Craig Williams, who was a parliamentary aide to the PM, and one of Sunak's close protection officers.

Cracknell added: "People who make mistakes like this, placing bets on knowledge they have, they’re not only letting down the party, they are letting down 600 candidates, they are also letting down thousands of members who are doing things of their own back and in their own time.

"That's just really disrespectful and I'm not prepared to have the people who are giving up their time for me, and the people I'm asking to vote for me disrespected."

Having publicly slammed those involved in the alleged scandal, Cracknell added: "I'm sure my name is not held up in a halo at CCHQ. All I can do is look in the mirror at night and say I done what I believe in.

"I'm sure there will be people in Conservative Campaign Headquarters who will be putting a black mark against my name for speaking out because they'll think, 'how can you do that as a team player?' And at the same time, I would say if I had placed a bet knowing information, how could I be a team player if I didn't own up to it?"

Sunak has been grilled over the scandal in recent days and has insisted he would "not hesitate to act" if either external investigations or the Conservatives’ own internal inquiry found any evidence of wrongdoing.

He told The Sun newspaper’s Never Mind The Ballots show: “What’s proper is to investigate things, to get to the bottom of it, to get to the truth and then act on those findings.”

Prior to the broadcasted interview, he told reporters “I am not aware of any other candidates that they are looking into", after reports that more people with connections to Sunak placed bets on the date of the election.

He also revealed the Conservative Party is holding its own internal inquiry into betting allegations.

The prime minister also said he had never placed a bet on politics since he'd been an MP, when asked by ITV News Political Correspondent Shehab Khan.

Cracknell is contesting Colchester after the previous MP, Conservative Will Quince, decided to leave Parliament after nine years as its representative.

Colchester was held by the Liberal Democrats between 1997 and 2015, before Quince won it for the Conservatives. In 2019, he secured a majority of more than 9,000 votes, but polls suggest Labour could be on course to win the seat.

Who is standing in the 2024 General Election in Colchester?

• Pam Cox - Labour

• James Cracknell - Conservatives

• Martin Goss - Lib Dems

• Terence Longstaff - Reform UK

• James Rolfe - Climate Party

• Sara Ruth - Green

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