LONDON: Five more police officers allegedly placed bets on the timing of the UK general election, a force spokesperson said Tuesday, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak withdrew support from two Conservative candidates over the escalating scandal.
The row has overshadowed the closing stretch of the election campaign as Sunak struggles to close his party’s 21-point average poll deficit to Keir Starmer’s Labour opposition before the July 4 vote.
London’s Metropolitan Police said the Gambling Commission had informed it that five additional officers and a member of Sunak’s protection team were believed to have gambled on the election date.
The protection officer was arrested this month on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and has been placed on restricted duties, the Met said.
The five newly accused have not been arrested and do not “work in a close protection role,” the force added.
“It is still the case that only one officer is under criminal investigation,” it said.
The development came as the Conservatives announced that “as a result of ongoing internal inquiries” it could no longer support Craig Williams or Laura Saunders as candidates at the election.
The two are being investigated by the regulator over claims they bet on when the election would be held, and if they did so based on inside information.
Nominations have closed so they will still appear on ballot papers.
Sunak, who has said he is “incredibly angry” over the claims, has come under mounting pressure in recent days from inside and outside his party to act on them.
He took the country by surprise on May 22 when he announced the date of the election six months before he had to.
Williams, a sitting MP, had served as Sunak’s ministerial aide.
He is alleged to have placed a £100 ($127) bet on a July date for the election three days before Sunak called the vote.
Saunders, a Conservative candidate for the southwestern city of Bristol, is married to the Tories’ director of campaigns, Tony Lee. He has taken a leave of absence from the campaign following the allegations.
The party’s chief data officer, Nick Mason, has also stepped back from duties over allegations he placed dozens of bets on the election date.
Political bets are allowed in the UK but using insider knowledge to do so is against the law.
In a separate move, Labour announced Tuesday that it had suspended Kevin Craig, its candidate for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich in eastern England, after it emerged he was facing a Gambling Commission inquiry.
The party did not say why Craig was being investigated, but Sky News and the BBC reported that he placed a bet on the outcome in his seat in the election, and not its date.
“With Keir Starmer as leader, the Labour party upholds the highest standards for our parliamentary candidates, as the public rightly expects from any party hoping to serve, which is why we have acted immediately in this case,” a spokesperson said.