Tory Welsh Secretary puts ‘on record’ that he did not place bet on election date

Published

5 months ago

June 21, 2024

admin

The Conservative Welsh secretary has “put on record” that he did not place a bet on the date of the general election as Rishi Sunak continues to face questions about a growing scandal.

David TC Davies told Sky News he had not bet on the date of the election after two Conservative candidates were placed under investigation by the Gambling Commission for allegedly doing so.

Mr Davies said the news that two candidates were being investigated came as a “complete surprise to me”.

Election latest:
Sunak ‘incredibly angry’ as scandal engulfs campaign

Laura Saunders, the Tory candidate for Bristol North West, is being investigated by the Gambling Commission alongside her husband, Tony Lee, the party’s director of campaigns.

Ms Saunders said she “will be co-operating with the Gambling Commission” probe, while her husband “took a leave of absence” from his role on Wednesday night, a Conservative Party spokesman told Sky News.

It comes a week after the prime minister’s close parliamentary aide Craig Williams, the Tory candidate in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, admitted to putting a “flutter” on the election, saying this has resulted in “some routine inquiries” which he was co-operating with “fully”.

Mr Sunak’s close protection officer has also been arrested and suspended over alleged bets about the timing of the election.

A gambling industry source told Sky News that “more names” are being looked at, though police “are not involved” in those cases.

But Mr Davies said he had “absolutely no idea” whether more names were going to emerge as part of the commission’s investigation.

“The news of those two is a complete surprise to me,” he said.

“I just want to put on record – I certainly haven’t bet myself and in fact I haven’t made any bets on anything for many years.

“I didn’t know the election was coming until probably the morning. I had an inclination, I wasn’t absolutely certain even then, and I’ve no idea who – if anyone – has placed any bets and what further investigation is going on.”

? Click here to follow Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts ?

Mr Davies added: “What I will say, I will repeat the prime minister’s words – it’s totally unacceptable if people have broken the rules in any way, there is an investigation going on by the Gambling Commission and I welcome that, and anyone who is found to have broken the rules will be kicked out of the Conservative Party.”

The prime minister told the BBC Question Time leader’s special on Thursday he was “incredibly angry” to learn of the allegations, calling it a “really serious matter”.

Pressed on why those under suspicion haven’t been suspended, Mr Sunak said an investigation had to take place first – but anyone guilty would be “booted out” of the party.

The Labour Party has called on Mr Sunak to suspend those involved immediately.

Shadow science secretary Peter Kyle told Sky News: “Keir Starmer said very clearly yesterday that had this been anything involving in a Labour candidate, then their feet wouldn’t have touched the ground. They’d be out.”

Put to him that the prime minister believed the investigation should be allowed to progress, Mr Kyle said: “We are in the general election campaign. In two weeks’ time, the country will go to the voting booths and they will cast their vote.

“And Rishi Sunak is quite clear… quite comfortable campaigning alongside MPs… allowing members of staff to be putting to the country a prospectus for the future, which is a message being carried by people who are under investigation.”

The full list of candidates in Bristol North West:

• Caroline Gooch – Liberal Democrats
• Darren Jones – Labour Party
• Scarlett O’Connor – Reform UK
• Mary Page – Green Party
• Laura Saunders – Conservative and Unionist Party
• Ben Smith – Social Democratic Party

The full list of candidates in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr:

• Jeremy Brignell-Thorp – Green Party
• Oliver Lewis – Reform UK
• Glyn Preston – Liberal Democrats
• Elwyn Vaughan – Plaid Cymru (The Party Of Wales)
• Craig Williams – Conservative and Unionist Party
• Steve Witherden – Labour Party

Politics

Helix mixer operator gets 3 years in prison for money laundering

Published

8 hours ago

November 15, 2024

admin

Helix mixer operator gets 3 years in prison for money laundering

Larry Harmon laundered 350,000 BTC, but he was treated leniently for his help in jailing Roman Sterlingov.

Politics

NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

Published

9 hours ago

November 15, 2024

admin

NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

The state Department of Environmental Conservation botched the permitting process, but it still gets a do-over.

Politics

UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September – slower than expected

Published

9 hours ago

November 15, 2024

admin

UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September - slower than expected

The UK economy grew by 0.1% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, despite the small positive GDP growth recorded in the third quarter, the economy shrank by 0.1% in September, dragging down overall growth for the three month period.

The growth was also slower than what had been expected by experts and a drop from the 0.5% growth between April and June, the ONS said.

Economists polled by Reuters and the Bank of England had forecast an expansion of 0.2%, slowing from the rapid growth seen over the first half of 2024 when the economy was rebounding from last year’s shallow recession.

And the metric that Labour has said it is most focused on – the GDP per capita, or the economic output divided by the number of people in the country – also fell by 0.1%.

Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Am I satisfied with the numbers published today? Of course not. I want growth to be stronger, to come sooner, and also to be felt by families right across the country.”

“It’s why in my Mansion House speech last night, I announced some of the biggest reforms of our pension system in a generation to unlock long term patient capital, up to £80bn to help invest in small businesses and scale up businesses and in the infrastructure needs,” Ms Reeves later told Sky News in an interview.

“We’re four months into this government. There’s a lot more to do to turn around the growth performance of the last decade or so.”

New economy data tests chancellor’s growth plan

The sluggish services sector – which makes up the bulk of the British economy – was a particular drag on growth over the past three months. It expanded by 0.1%, cancelling out the 0.8% growth in the construction sector.

The UK’s GDP for the most recent quarter is lower than the 0.7% growth in the US and 0.4% in the Eurozone.

The figures have pushed the UK towards the bottom of the G7 growth table for the third quarter of the year.

It was expected to meet the same 0.2% growth figures reported in Germany and Japan – but fell below that after a slow September.

The pound remained stable following the news, hovering around $1.267. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, opened the day down by 0.4%.

The Bank of England last week predicted that Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought.

Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecast that inflation will return “sustainably” to its target of 2% in the first half of 2027, a year later than at its last meeting.

The Bank’s quarterly report found Ms Reeves’s £70bn package of tax and borrowing measures will place upward pressure on prices, as well as delivering a three-quarter point increase to GDP next year.