Carol Vorderman’s brutal three phrase put down of Tories over betting scandal
TV presenter Carol Vorderman has three furious words for the Tories over the General Election betting scandal – and everyone has the same response.
Rishi Sunak’s campaign crisis has hit new lows as three Tories and a police officer are now being investigated over alleged bets on the timing of the election.
It has been revealed that his party’s Campaigning Director and two Conservative candidates are being investigated by the Gambling Commission over the scandal. It comes after a police officer in Mr Sunak’s close protection team was arrested and suspended from duty for allegedly betting on the date of the July 4 poll. Labour called for the two Conservative candidates to be suspended, and fury has been swirling amongst voters over the probe.
Now Vorderman has shared her white-hot outrage over the fiasco. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, the presenter and author shared an image of Mr Sunak making a speech, standing in front of a lectern plastered with his Rwanda scheme slogan ‘stop the boats’.
Vorderman’s post shows the word ‘boats’ crossed out in the image and replaced with bets. She accompanied the edited photo with three simple words: “STOP THE BETS”.
The tongue-in-cheek message has set Twitter alight, as the phrase ‘stop the bets’ is now trending. Hundreds of commenters flocked to the post to share their disdain, as one wrote: “I’m enjoying how the Tory Party in its entirety seems to be further torpedoing their seat numbers daily. They can’t put one foot right without tripping over the further right one.”
Another furious commenter said: “‘This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level’. Sunak outside No 10 when he was ‘installed’ as PM” with an angry emoji. Meanwhile, a third X user jibed: “Is it D-Day for stop the bets? ‘We will fight them at the bookies….”
The betting scandal surfaced last week but erupted again today after it emerged the Tony Lee, the Tory campaign chief, is being questioned by the Gambling Commission – as well as a Tory candidate Laura Saunders, who is understood to be his wife.
The Tories confirmed Mr Lee took “a leave of absence” from Party HQ on Wednesday, leaving the party without a campaigning director two weeks before polling day.
A statement released by Ms Saunders’ solicitors said: “As the Conservative Party has already stated, investigations are ongoing. Ms Saunders will be co-operating with the Gambling Commission and has nothing further to add.” The statement said it was “inappropriate to conduct any investigation of this kind via the media” said she was considering legal action for infringement of privacy rights.
The Mirror exclusively revealed earlier that a flurry of bets were placed on the likelihood of a July election with a major betting exchange the week before Mr Sunak announced the date. Data from Smarkets, the industry leader for political betting, shows thousands of pounds being wagered either for and against the election being in July between May 14th and May 18th. Mr Sunak announced on May 22nd that the election would take place on July 4th.
The chaos comes as Mr Sunak is set to face a grilling from the public in tonight’s Question Time election special. The two-hour panel will see Tory PM Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Keir Starmer, John Swinney for the Scottish National Party and Ed Davey for the Liberal Democrats all set to face the live studio audience.
