New gambling scandal risks punching electoral bruise for Tories

Published

3 months ago

June 20, 2024

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Politics, as with comedy, is so often about timing.

And you’d have thought the Conservative official in charge of social media may have sensed danger before putting out an advert on party channels featuring a roulette wheel and the accompanying caption: “If you bet on Labour, you can never win.”

That’s because within hours of the button being pushed on that post, it was confirmed that a second Tory candidate was being investigated for allegedly placing a bet on the timing of the general election shortly before it was publicly announced.

Politics latest: Tory candidate facing gambling probe married to campaign director

Now, we also know that Laura Saunders – who is standing in Bristol North West – is married to the party’s director of campaigning, someone who you’d assume would have access to private information potentially about the election.

This matters legally because it is an offence to use inside information not available to others to gain an unfair advantage when placing a bet.

While not naming any individuals, the Gambling Commission says it is “investigating the possibility of offences concerning the date of the election”.

But the situation also matters politically for two reasons.

Firstly – to risk stating the obvious – we are two weeks away from polling day and the incumbent government is trailing badly in the polls.

At the very least, Rishi Sunak wants to be talking about the risks (as he sees it) of a Labour administration and certainly not dodgy-looking activity in his own ranks.

Minutes and column inches count for more in the final stretch of an election campaign, and this is another story that will suck up bandwidth and crowd out the messages the Tories want to get out there.

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Secondly, this story has the potential to do damage because it zeroes in on pre-existing political vulnerabilities present in the Tory party.

To be more specific, this risks being woven into toxic political behemoth of a topic often known as “Tory sleaze”.

So the thought process may go: “They were partying when the country was locked down, their mates were making money out of PPE in the pandemic, and now they even tried to cash in on the date of the general election.”

Yes, the party will correctly argue that in all these cases it was a small number of people allegedly breaking the rules.

But in the glare of the campaign, it might not matter, as – a bit like the D-Day story did with the accusation of an out of touch prime minister – this story risks punching an electoral bruise.

There’s one caveat to that though.

We in Westminster can sometimes overstate the degree to which stories like this do damage to one party, when the reality is they often serve to hurt all politicians in the minds of voters, regardless of their affiliation.

That may be offset by the inevitable party political emphasis that an election brings.

But given this campaign has been characterised by a sense of apathy and lack of faith in the broader political class, don’t be surprised if this latest scandal dents confidence in all would-be leaders.

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Lisa Nandy says Sir Keir Starmer ‘very sensible’ to accept football tickets worth thousands

Published

10 hours ago

September 21, 2024

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Lisa Nandy says Sir Keir Starmer 'very sensible' to accept football tickets worth thousands

Lisa Nandy has said Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to accept thousands of pounds worth of football tickets was “very sensible”.

The minister for culture, media and sport also said she had never accepted free clothes from a donor.

Speaking to Sky News at the start of the Labour Party conference today, the MP for Wigan said: “The problem that has arisen since [Sir Keir] became leader of the opposition and then prime minister is that for him to sit in the stands would require a huge security detail, would be disruptive for other people and it would cost the taxpayer a lot of money.

“So I think he’s taken a very sensible decision that’s not the right and appropriate thing to do, and it’s right to accept that he has to go and sit in a different area.

“But I know that he’d much rather be sitting in the stands cheering people on with the usual crowd that he’s been going to the football with for years.”

Ms Nandy also said while she has not accepted free clothes – joking “I think you can probably see that I choose my own clothes sadly” – she doesn’t “make any judgements about what other members of parliament do”.

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She said: “The only judgement I would make is if they’re breaking the rules, so they’re trying to hide what they’re doing. That’s when problems arise.

“Because the point of being open and transparent is that people can see where the relationships are, and they can then judge for themselves whether there’s been any undue influence.”

She asserted there had not been an undue influence in gifts accepted by senior Labour figures, adding: “We don’t want the news and the commentary to be dominated by conversations about clothes.

“We rightly have a system, I think, where the taxpayer doesn’t fund these things. We don’t claim on expenses for them. And so MPs will always take donations, will always take gifts in kind.

“MPs of all political parties have historically done that and that is the system that we have.”

She added: “I don’t think there’s any suggestion here that Keir Starmer has broken any rules. I don’t think there’s any suggestion that he’s done anything wrong.

“We expect our politicians to be well turned out, we expect them to be people who go out and represent us at different events and represent the country at different events and are clothed appropriately.

“But the point is that when we accept donations for that or for anything else, that we declare them and we’re open and transparent about them.”

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Sir Keir, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves said yesterday they will no longer accept donations in the future to pay for clothes.

The announcement followed criticism of Sir Keir’s gifts from donors, which included clothing worth £16,200 and multiple pairs of glasses worth £2,485, according to the MPs’ register of interests.

The register shows Ms Rayner has accepted clothing donations to the value of £2,230.

Sky News also revealed the scale of Sir Keir’s donations this week as part of our Westminster Accounts investigation.

Sir Keir was found to have received substantially more gifts and freebies than any other MP – his total in gifts, benefits, and hospitality topped £100,000 since December 2019.