Keir Starmer said he has never placed a bet on politics and accused Tories embroiled in the gambling scandal of having “their fingers in the till”.
As many as 15 Conservative candidates and officials are now being investigated over the election betting scandal, it has been claimed. The Gambling Commission has widened its probe into claims people cheated by placing bets on the date of polling day, with five Tory figures already identified as being looked at.
Rishi Sunak finally dropped two Westminster candidates caught up in the row on Tuesday – his parliamentary aide Craig Williams, who is standing in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, and Bristol North West candidate Laura Saunders. Two other officials, campaigns chief Tony Lee and data officer Nick Mason, are also being looked at by the watchdog, along with Russell George, a Tory Senedd member, who represents the same constituency as Mr Williams.
But Labour has also been drawn into the row after it was forced to drop Central Suffolk and North Ipswich candidate Kevin Craig, who bet against himself in the General Election.
On a visit to a GP surgery in Coalville, East Midlands, the Labour leader said: “I have never placed a political bet, I only bet on the horses. So that’s where I stand on this.”
Mr Starmer rejected calls to ban politicians from betting, saying: “I think the rules are clear enough. It’s about the behaviour of politicians and it’s about the behaviour of leaders when things come to light.
“I said if any of my candidates were being investigated by the Gambling Commission, they’d be out the door and their feet wouldn’t touch the ground.” He added: “Contrast that with the PM who took days and days and days to make a decision which is obvious he should have taken in the first place.”
The Labour leader agreed that there was a cultural problem in Westminster and said he wanted it to move to the “politics of service”. He said: “I think there’s been too much of the politics of self advancement in the last 14 years, you have seen different versions of that – Partygate, Covid contracts, insider dealing when it comes to gambling.
“The reason I’m resistant to go down the road of ‘let’s change the rules’, (is) a number of Conservatives have got caught with their fingers in the till. Instead of saying, ‘You shouldn’t put your fingers in the till’, they want to have an argument about whether the rules change.
Asked if he’d had assurances that none of his top team had been gambling on the election, he said: “They know the standards that I expect of them and of all candidates.”
He said Labour candidate Kevin Craig betting against himself was “materially different” to the Tory candidates investigated for placing bets on the election date but that his decision to suspend him was still appropriate.
Mr Craig admitted to a “stupid error of judgement, claiming he thought he would “never win this seat”, and had been planning to give any winnings to local charities.