British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing calls to launch an inquiry after a member of his security detail was arrested for allegedly betting on the timing of the general election.
London’s Metropolitan Police said it was told by the gambling commission that a close protection officer was being investigated over the alleged bets.
The regulator had already been looking into claims that Conservative party candidate Craig Williams, who served as Mr Sunak’s ministerial aide, placed a bet on when the election would be held.
A second candidate from Mr Sunak’s party, Laura Saunders, is now also under investigation about an alleged bet on the date of the poll, the BBC reported yesterday evening.
Ms Saunders is married to the Tories’ director of campaigns, Tony Lee.
He “took a leave of absence from CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters) yesterday” (Wednesday), the party said.
CCHQ confirmed earlier that the gambling commission had contacted it about “a small number of individuals”, without commenting further.
Labour leader Keir Starmer, tipped to succeed Mr Sunak in Downing Street, called on the prime minister to withdraw his support for those allegedly involved.
“It’s astonishing that we’re in this place… The government, Rishi Sunak, just needs to take action. He needs to account for exactly who knew what,” he said.
Read more: View sweeping Tory heartlands that party ‘needs to go’
Labour’s campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden separately wrote to Mr Sunak and said the claims were “a pattern of behaviour” in the Tories focused on making “a quick profit”.
Ed Davey, who leads the smaller Liberal Democrats, said the allegations smacked of “corruption”.
“It needs to have a heavy hand from the top,” he added.
Mr Sunak announced that a general election would be held on 4 July, taking his own party by surprise as he still had six months to call a vote.
The Tories are expected to be dumped out of office after 14 years in power, with polls consistently putting the main opposition Labour party some 20 points ahead.
