Will punishing the bookies deter our gambling politicians? Don’t bet on it

What is surprising to me about the seemingly never ending political betting scandal is that it’s taken such a long time to emerge.

Just look at the behaviour we’ve witnessed in Westminster and Whitehall over the last few years: boozing – including at Downing Street parties during lockdown, sexual harassment, MPs looking at porn in the chamber, to name just a handful of examples. Is anyone really surprised that a few of our elected representatives fancy a bit of a flutter from time to time?

Politics is a high stakes game, and parliament is full of highly ambitious, type-A personalities who like making rules for other people but don’t think they should have to follow them. Quite a few of these people seemingly like to bet.