Rishi Sunak pulls plug on two Tory candidates embroiled in gambling row

A Conservative Party spokesman has just confirmed that two of their candidates involved in the ongoing gambling row have had their support withdrawn by Tory HQ.

A spokesman told the press: “As a result of ongoing internal enquiries, we have concluded that we can no longer support Craig Williams or Laura Saunders as Parliamentary Candidates at the forthcoming General Election”.

“We have checked with the Gambling Commission that this decision does not compromise the investigation that they are conducting, which is rightly independent and ongoing.”

Craig Williams’ involvement in the row, and his now ostracizing by the party, will be a huge blow to Mr Sunak who has counted the Welsh MP as one of his closest allies over the past five years.

Mr Williams, the MP for Montgomeryshire, has served as Mr Sunak’s Parliamentary private secretary (PPS) since he was appointed Chancellor, and was a key figure in his leadership moves under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

Laura Saunders, the party’s candidate in Bristol North East, is married to the party’s head of campaigns, who also took a leave of absence last week after Ms Saunders was revealed to also be under investigation by the gambling watchdog.

While Tory high command will now no longer be giving any resources to either Mr Williams nor Ms Saunders, both will still appear on voters’ ballot papers as Conservative Candidates.

As the election deadline for candidates has now passed, there is no way for the Tories to change candidates in the seats, nor force them to stand as ‘independent’ candidates.

A total of five individuals connected with either the party or Mr Sunak have now been implicated in the ongoing scandal, including the party’s chief data officer and a member of the Prime Minister’s close protection team.

The latter was arrested and suspended from his job by the Metropolitan Police over the scandal, causing repeated questions from the media about why Mr Sunak had failed to take such decisive action against members of his party similarly involved.

Responding to the breaking news, Sir Keir Starmer simply asked: “Why didn’t that happen a week ago?”

Being grilled by The Sun during a live TV interview yesterday evening, Mr Sunak said he was “incredibly angry” when he learned about the betting claims but wouldn’t explain why he hadn’t made a decision to suspend the two candidates.

He told the paper’s political editor: “The Gambling Commission – who are investigating this along with the police – are independent of me, independent of government, I don’t have access to the details of their investigation, they don’t report to me, but what I can tell you is in parallel we have been conducting internal inquiries of our own into the situation and won’t hesitate to act when information or findings come to light”.

He added: “It’s right that nothing that I do or anyone does compromises the integrity of those investigations”.

“I’ve been crystal clear: If anyone has broken the rules then they should face not just the full consequences of the law but they will be booted out of the Conservative Party.”

The Express understands that both candidates remain Conservative members, and will do until the Gambling Commission reports back and only then if that report finds wrongdoing.

Last night, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said it’s “not the journalist’s role to be judge and jury”.

She brushed off the row, arguing: “This issue, will be come and gone like many other issues”.