Tory marketing campaign boss probed over ‘election guess’ as he takes go away of absence

The Tory party’s Campaigning Director is being probed by the Gambling Commission over an alleged bet on the date of the General Election.

Tony Lee is being looked into by the gambling regulator alongside his wife Laura Saunders, who is a Tory candidate and has worked for the party since 2015, the BBC reported. The Tories confirmed Mr Lee took “a leave of absence” from Party HQ on Wednesday, leaving the Conservatives without a campaigning director two weeks before polling day. Under the Gambling Act, cheats can be jailed for up to two years.

It comes after Rishi Sunak’s parliamentary aide Craig Williams admitted he was being looked at by the Gambling Commission after he put a £100 bet on a General Election being held in July. In a statement last week, he conceded he had “put a flutter” on the date and should have “thought through how it looks”. He apologised and said he had made a “huge error of judgement” over the alleged bet.

Separately a police officer in Mr Sunak’s close protection team has been arrested over an alleged bet on the timing of the General Election. The male officer was suspended from his role before being arrested by police “on suspicion of misconduct in public office” on Monday. He was taken into custody and bailed pending further enquiries.

Labour called on Mr Sunak to withdraw support from the two Conservative candidates. Asked about Ms Saunders, Keir Starmer said: “If it was one of my candidates they’d be gone and their feet would have not touched the floor. There’s a wider point here that you touched on, which is we’ve now had 14 years of chaos, of division, of politics being about self-entitlement, and politics needs to be about service, about public service.”

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the party’s campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden said: “Surely you can understand that – yet again – this looks as though there is one rule for members of the Tory Party, and another rule for everyone else, specifically on this occasion a serving police officer.” The Lib Dems have also called for both Ms Saunders and Mr Williams to be suspended.

Communities Secretary Michael Gove said reports people were being investigated over General Election bets was “deeply disappointing and upsetting”. He said: “I don’t know all the details but obviously it is not something anyone should be doing, should’ve done. It’s wrong but there’s a process now.”

Asked about Ms Saunders’s case, a Conservative spokesman said: “We have been contacted by the Gambling Commission about a small number of individuals. As the Gambling Commission is an independent body, it wouldn’t be proper to comment further, until any process is concluded.” It added on Mr Lee: “The Director of Campaigning took a leave of absence from CCHQ yesterday.”

A spokesman from the Gambling Commission said: “Currently the Commission is investigating the possibility of offences concerning the date of the election. This is an ongoing investigation, and the Commission cannot provide any further details at this time.”

In relation to Mr William’s case, a spokesman for the Gambling Commission said: “If someone uses confidential information in order to gain an unfair advantage when betting, this may constitute an offence of cheating under section 42 of the Gambling Act, which is a criminal offence.”

In a statement related to the police officer’s case, a Met spokesman told the Mirror: “The matter was immediately referred to officers in the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards, who opened an investigation, and the officer was also removed from operational duties.”