UK general election live: Gambling Commission speaks to PM’s chief of staff as witness in election bets investigation | General election 2024

The Gambling Commission has spoken to the prime minister’s chief of staff as a witness in connection with bets allegedly placed on the date of the general election, it has been reported.

The BBC said Liam Booth-Smith was interviewed by the regulator last week to clarify who may have known about the date of the general election before it was announced.

The Gambling Commission investigation is focused on allegations of cheating, while Scotland Yard will lead on what is likely to be a much smaller number of cases where there could be additional offences such as misconduct in public office.

An update by the Metropolitan police and Gambling Commission said at least seven officers from the force are being investigated.

Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes said: “We are focused on an investigation into confidential information being used to gain an unfair advantage when betting on the date of the general election.

“Our enforcement team has made rapid progress so far and will continue to work closely with the Metropolitan police to draw this case to a just conclusion.”

Rishi Sunak has withdrawn Tory support for his former parliamentary aide Craig Williams’s bid to be returned as MP for the Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr seat, after he admitted having a “flutter” on the election date.

During a campaign visit in Derbyshire, Sunak was repeatedly asked whether he had confided in Mr Williams ahead of his surprise announcement of a summer election. Speaking to broadcasters, the prime minister said: “I’ve been clear about this. I’m furious to have learned about these allegations.

“We’ve initiated independent inquiries of our own, because I don’t have access to the Gambling Commission’s detail. You’ll recognise that while there are ongoing independent investigations, it’s just not right for me to say anything more about that.”

Education secretary Gillian Keegan has said there are “so many” undecided voters before polling day on 4 July.

She told GB News: “I think all of us are out every day knocking on doors, all of us are saying the same thing – I was talking to a colleague yesterday – there are so many voters who are undecided and, of course, what’s happening in the polls is everyone is trying to anticipate what they’ll do, there’s all kinds of algorithms trying to anticipate that, but what we’re doing is going out on the doorstep.

“What is clear is many of these voters have not decided to go for another party. Some have, but not many have, and that’s what we’re finding on the doorstep, so this last week is crucially important, you should never take the voters for granted, none of us ever do.”

Asked about whether Reform UK has rattled the Tories given its showing in the polls, Keegan said: “What actually shows up a lot about the Reform party is some of their disgraceful comments – either their racist comments or their comments about women, his [Farage’s] comments about Putin have cut through, a few people do mention that.”

Paul Krugman

Here’s the latest in the Guardian’s series on The broken years: Tory Britain 2010-24:

Unless the polls are wildly inaccurate, the Conservative party is heading towards a catastrophic defeat in the coming election.

All across the rich world, voters are angry at their governments – they blame politicians for a burst of inflation that happened almost everywhere and is now subsiding almost everywhere, including in the UK. But the Conservatives deserve defeat more than most: they took power 14 years ago promising to deliver responsible policies and economic success. Instead they have presided over economic stagnation and a collapse in public services.

Why has Conservative governance gone so badly? It is natural to blame Brexit, which did indeed increase trade frictions and therefore surely had a negative effect on British real income. However, Brexit has not had the disastrous effects some predicted, and has somewhat perversely led to a rise rather than a fall in immigration, especially of the highly skilled.

In fact, the roots of Britain’s poor economic performance are older and deeper than Brexit. Though many bad decisions undoubtedly contributed, one central cause was the way David Cameron and George Osborne gratuitously embraced fiscal austerity when they came to power after the global financial crisis.

Read more:

Rob Davies

In February 2020, with the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader heating up, Keir Starmer’s office received a helping hand.

Peter Coates, the head of the dynasty behind Stoke-based online gambling company Bet365, donated £25,000 to Starmer’s office.

Coates and the Bet365 group had been regular donors to Labour until 2015, to the tune of £490,000, but the money dried up in the Corbyn years, when Bet365 turned its attention to stopping Brexit, handing £512,500 to the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU.

The donation was a clear sign that the gambling industry spigot could easily be turned on again.

Now, of the 12 most recent political donations by the industry and its executives, all have gone to Labour – a total of just under £400,000 stretching back to March 2020 – according to Electoral Commission records.

But that river of cash does not just indicate Labour’s position as the likely winner of the 4 July general election. It also illustrates the deep-rooted ties between the Labour party and the £11bn-a-year gambling sector.

TheMetropolitan police have indicated that the dropped Conservative candidate Craig Williams could come under the scope of a criminal investigation into betting on the election that has overshadowed Rishi Sunak’s campaign.

The Guardian’s Pippa Crerar and Rob Davies report:

Scotland Yard will investigate any suspicious bets that could represent a misconduct in public office offence, while the Gambling Commission will continue to look at whether betting rules were broken.

The prime minister repeatedly refused to say whether he told Williams, his closest parliamentary aide, about the date of the election, wrongly claiming he could prejudice the watchdog’s inquiry.

So far, five Conservatives are known to have been caught up in the Gambling Commission inquiry since the Guardian revealed two weeks ago that Williams had placed a £100 bet with Ladbrokes three days before Sunak announced the date.

The Tories have withdrawn the party’s support for Williams’ campaign to be returned as the MP for the Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr seat, after he admitted having a “flutter” on the election date.

On the doorstep with Labour’s Wes Streeting

Jessica Elgot

In the beating sunshine deep in the heart of one of the Conservatives’ safest Midlands seats, Wes Streeting is slapping on factor 50 for another afternoon in pursuit of a historic Labour majority. It is in these safe seats where it will be seen whether the extinction-level predictions for the Tories are accurate.

Streeting, often named as a potential future Labour leader, has spent his entire career as a campaigner deeply involved in local organising. He is in demand from candidates partly because he is such a comfortable doorstep activist, who bangs on doors with the vigour normally reserved for use by police officers or bailiffs.

The party’s message this week is an all-out war on complacency. But Streeting says he is genuinely encountering far more undecided voters than he had anticipated and that he has not seen the Labour landslide the polls have predicted. “I don’t think they take into account the millions of undecided voters who will ultimately decide whether there is a Labour government,” he said.

The Guardian leads with an interview with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, and his pledge to ban NHS managers who silence and scapegoat whistleblowers, as part of a determined drive by Labour to eradicate a culture of cover-ups:

The FT: Top-rate taxpayer numbers to exceed 1mn as threshold freezes swell coffers

The Times: Shoot illegal migrants, said Reform campaigner

The Daily Telegraph: Farage is a Putin appeaser, says Sunak

The I: Private school fees VAT in Reeves’ first Budget but delayed until 2025 – and loophole closed

The National: Sarwar – Labour candidate lied about helping Tories at 2019 election:

The Daily Mirror: This is why we need to vote Labour: Tory NHS neglect highlighted…as striking docs say they’ll talk to Keir

The Daily Mail: Poll that shows it’s not too late to stop Starmer supermajority

The Daily Record has an interview with former Countdown host Carol Vordeman, who, it says, has “done sums to show how tactical voting can ensure party’s number is up”. The headline is, We can reduce Tories to rubble:

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live elections coverage with me, Helen Livingstone.

This morning’s top story: a Reform UK activist in the constituency where Nigel Farage is standing has been secretly filmed making extremely racist comments about Rishi Sunak, as well as using Islamophobic, and other offensive language, the Guardian’s Peter Walker reports.

Farage said he was “dismayed” by the views expressed by Andrew Parker, a Reform canvasser, who was filmed as part of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News.

Parker also said asylum seekers should be shot as “target practice”.

In a statement to Channel 4 News, Parker said Farage and Reform were not aware of his views, and he was sorry if they “have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute”.

The channel also secretly filmed George Jones, a longtime party activist who organises events for Farage, making homophobic comments, calling the Pride flag “degenerate”.