After days of furore directed at Rishi Sunak for the election betting scandal, now a Labour candidate is under investigation by the Gambling Commission for his own betting activity – and is immediately suspended.
Is this an equaliser in one of the grubbiest electoral sagas of recent elections? Quite possibly not.
There is no doubting the utter dismay in Labour HQ at the revelation that they too have a candidate caught up in the betting scandal.
However, if this scenario is as presented, it is hard to see an allegation being mounted that he had insider intelligence on the race – unless it can be proved he was deliberately setting out to lose.
An under-pressure Gambling Commission will investigate every candidate’s name on the spreadsheet from gambling companies of those who placed bets – but it is unclear from available facts where this will go.
The Tory betting saga, however, is more complicated and now on its 13th day.
It was almost two weeks ago that Craig Williams – Rishi Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide and former Montgomeryshire MP – admitted he had placed a bet on the election date – a date he might have known before the public at large.
He denies he committed any offence, and remains under investigation.
Laura Saunders, standing for the Tories just south in Bristol North West, has also been suspended for putting a bet on the date when her partner worked in Conservative headquarters on the election.
For most of that time, Mr Sunak has been insisting he could not suspend either candidate because of the ongoing probe by the Gambling Commission.
Ministers, as well as opponents, weighed in.
And on Tuesday he reversed that decision under that pressure.
This means there are questions about the prime minister’s own judgement and unwillingness to act on top of questions about the behaviour of those closest to him.
Image: Craig Williams and Laura Saunders have both been suspended from the Tories. Pics: PA/Laura Saunders for Bristol North West
This story has had massive cut through with the public, topping the charts for any news story in the UK – according to YouGov’s AI news tracker – for the last four days.
There is dismay from the cabinet downwards.
Labour’s own problems have undermined their own ability to go on the attack. But it is not clear that voters will see the two issues on the same scale.
The full list of the candidates running for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich is:
Charlie Caiger, independent; Tony Gould, Reform UK; Mike Hallatt, independent; Brett Alistair Mickelburgh, Lib Dems; Dan Pratt, Greens; Patrick Spencer, Conservatives.
The full list of candidates for Bristol North West is:
Caroline Gooch, Lib Dems; Darren Jones, Labour; Scarlett O’Connor, Reform UK; Mary Page, Green Party; Ben Smith, SDP.
The full list of candidates for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr is:
Jeremy Brignell-Thorp, Green Party; Oliver Lewis, Reform UK; Glyn Preston, Lib Dems; Elwyn Vaughan, Plaid Cymru; Steve Witherden, Labour.
When TV cameras are let in to film world leaders meeting in person, the resulting footage is usually incredibly boring for journalists and incredibly safe for politicians.
Put through a total of almost 90 minutes of televised questioning alongside the American leader, it was his diciest encounter with the president yet.
But he still just about emerged intact.
For a start, he can claim substantive policy wins after Trump announced extra pressure on Vladimir Putin to negotiate a ceasefire and dialled up the concern over the devastating scenes coming from Gaza.
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
There were awkward moments aplenty though.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Image: The two leaders held talks in front of the media. Pic: Reuters
On green energy, immigration, taxation and online regulation, the differences were clear to see.
Sir Keir just about managed to paper over the cracks by chuckling at times, choosing his interventions carefully and always attempting to sound eminently reasonable.
At times, it had the energy of a man being forced to grin and bear inappropriate comments from his in-laws at an important family dinner.
But hey, it stopped a full Trump implosion – so I suppose that’s a win.
My main takeaway from this Scotland visit though is not so much the political gulf present between the two men, but the gulf in power.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:23
Trump gives Putin new deadline to end war
Sir Keir flew the length of the country he leads to be the guest at the visiting president’s resort.
He was then forced to sit through more than an hour of uncontrolled, freewheeling questioning from a man most of his party and voters despise, during which he was offered unsolicited advice on how to beat Nigel Farage and criticised (albeit indirectly) on key planks of his government’s policy platform.
In return he got warm words about him (and his wife) and relatively incremental announcements on two foreign policy priorities.
So why does he do it?
Because, to borrow a quote from a popular American political TV series: “Air Force One is a big plane and it makes a hell of a noise when it lands on your head.”
With Amazon and Walmart exploring stablecoins, institutions may be underestimating potential exposure of customer data on blockchains, posing risks to privacy and brand trust.
The European Central Bank may rely on regulated euro stablecoins and private innovation to counter the dominance of US dollar stablecoins, says adviser Jürgen Schaaf.