The Conservatives have been warned they are “held in contempt” by voters as Rishi Sunak failed to deny cabinet ministers were among senior Tories to place bets on the date of the election.
As pressure mounts on the prime minister over the Downing Street betting scandal, Dominic Grieve, the former Tory attorney general, said the party was getting what “they deserve” after years of chaos.
Paul Scully, a former Tory minister, described it as a “punishment election” for the party, that the outcry over gambling allegations would exacerbate.
“It feels like we’re shooting ourselves in the foot and we’re not millipedes. We’ve only got two feet,” he said. “When you’ve got people that are wanting to punish the Conservatives and so they’re going to be looking under the microscope at absolutely everything that we do and then we’re making it easy for them to punish us even further on that basis.”
On Friday, multiple cabinet ministers were forced to deny they had placed a bet on polling day just before it was announced by the prime minister.
Welsh Secretary David TC Davies said: “I just want to put on record that I certainly haven’t bet myself”.
He added he had “absolutely no idea” if any more names would emerge, amid fears the scandal will spread.
Defence secretary Grant Shapps told The Independent he had not placed a bet.
It is understood that transport minister Mark Harper did not have a flutter either, while friends of Penny Mordaunt said she made no bets.
The scandal has seen the party’s director of campaigning Tony Lee “take a leave of absence”. Meanwhile, Mr Lee’s wife Laura Saunders, a candidate in Bristol who has worked for the party since 2015, and Craig Williams, Mr Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary, are all under investigation for placing bets just before the PM called his surprise snap election.
Mr Craig Williams, Mr Sunak’s closest aide, has admitted he made a “huge error of judgement” betting on the election date.
Campaigning in Wales, Mr Sunak refused to be drawn on whether he was aware of other Conservative candidates or officials who had placed bets on a July 4 election, saying there were “multiple investigations” under way that were “independent” and “confidential”.
He dodged a follow-up question on cabinet ministers, repeating the issue was a job for the Gambling Commission.
Anyone found to have broken the rules should “not only face the full consequences of the law, but I will ensure that they are booted out of the Conservative Party too,” he added.
The Conservatives have confirmed they have been contacted by the Gambling Commission “about a small number of individuals”.
The Lib Dems have called for WhatsApps about betting to be handed over. The party’s Sarah Olney said: “WhatsApp messages of the Prime Minister’s inner circle must be handed over to the Cabinet Office, or else it raises suspicion of yet more Conservative cover-ups.”
Mr Sunak has said he is “incredibly angry” that members of his inner circle have been caught up in the furore over bets on the date of the election.
But on Thursday, as the prime minister faced a BBC Question Time audience with just two weeks to go before polling day, he refused to suspend two candidates currently being investigated by the Gambling Commission.
Betfair data appears to show a flurry of bets on a July poll placed on May 21, the day before Mr Sunak called the election, including some in the hundreds of pounds and at odds that would have delivered profits in the thousands.
Mr Grieve said that voters recognised the “good” the Coalition Government did until 2015, “despite the pain” of austerity.
But he said that having paid that price, they expected a much better period to follow.
Instead, he said Brexit led to “a high level of political chaos which was thoroughly predictable and therefore rests upon the shoulders of those who created it in the first place, namely those who advocated a reckless policy.
“And then to solve it, because they were becoming desperate, they went and got themselves a prime minister who was in fact a charlatan. And he behaved exactly a way that was both predictable and predicted.
“And in fact, for all his boosterism and the fact he took them to an extraordinary election, because charlatanism often works in the short term, people landed in the long term with a massive problem of loss of public confidence, and then loss of public confidence in the integrity of government.”
“Then they were so desperate … they went off and got somebody who wrecked the economy in 49 days and caused even more trouble.”
He added: “They seem to be surprised that having done all this receiving recognition they deserve their efforts. But it seems to me that getting exactly the recognition they deserve for their efforts. Which is that they’re held in contempt by the electorate.”
He added that that was “unfair in one sense” to many, including the current prime minister. But he added: “It should not come as a surprise to them that this is a punishment election”.
Asked if he had placed a bet on the timing of the election, chancellor Jeremy Hunt referred The Independent to his press office, which has been approached for further clarification.
