RISHI Sunak said he’s “incredibly angry” about the Tory election betting scandal.
Speaking to The Sun’s Political Editor Harry Cole on our election showdown tonight, the Prime Minister doubled down on the saga.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has tonight doubled down on the betting scandal
Mr Sunak was speaking to The Sun’s Harry Cole on our election showdown
The PM was pushed almost immediately on the election betting scandal – with Harry noting “your bodyguard, your aid, your campaign manager” are all being probed by the Gambling Commission.
Sitting in front of Sun readers, Mr Sunak said: “I’ve been crystal clear, if anyone has broken the rules not upheld the standards, I would expect that they will be held to account.
“They should face the consequences of the law, and they will be booted out and the Conservative Party.
“I was as angry as anybody when I heard about these things. The right thing to do, is to get to the bottom of this and investigate this properly.”
Rishi told our Political Editor to “be careful” – as he repeated he couldn’t comment on independent probes.
Asked if the scandal showed the government lacked integrity, Rishi says: “I mean, Harry, just be careful. There are independent inquiries ongoing.”
The betting scandal this week threatened to overshadow their election campaign with four politicians currently under investigation for putting money on the date of the vote.
The PM has been trying to shift the narrative away from the scandal but his hopes were crushed yesterday when the party’s chief data officer Nick Mason became the fourth Tory investigated by the Gambling Commission.
Sunak today said he was not “aware” of any other Tory candidates being investigated for election bets.
The Prime Minister said “of course” this meant he and his family had not done so – as he is standing in the election.
It is understood the watchdog has widened its inquiries to investigate whether party insiders used third parties to place bets.
Sources claim the Gambling Commission has identified more persons of interest — on top of officials Tony Lee and Mr Mason, who have taken leave, and candidates Craig Williams and Laura Saunders.
The latter pair are still on the election campaign trail as official Tory parliamentary hopefuls.
The PM said earlier today: “The Gambling Commission is independent of Government – it’s independent of me.
“I don’t have the details of their investigation, right? They don’t report to me, I don’t have the details, but what I can tell you is, in parallel we’ve been conducting our own internal inquiries and of course will act on any relevant findings or information from that and pass it on to the Gambling Commission.”
He added: “What I can tell you is I am not aware of any other candidate that they are looking at.”
How to watch our election showdown
Watch Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer face the questions YOU care about on our Never Mind The Ballots Election Showdown on Monday, June 24 at 5.30pm.
Political Editor Harry Cole will grill the PM first before taking on the Labour Leader in the clash.
You can watch live on thesun.co.uk, our YouTube channel and on our social media accounts