Tory candidate facing probe over election date betting allegations threatens to sue BBC – as it happened

• Rishi Sunak has become mired in a row over alleged betting on the general election date after it emerged that a second Conservative candidate and the party’s campaigns director were being looked into by the Gambling Commission.The watchdog is examining bets allegedly placed by Laura Saunders, the Tory candidate in Bristol North West, and her husband, Tony Lee, who is now on leave of absence from his job at party headquarters. In a statement issued through lawyers, Saunders said that she was cooperating with the commission’s investigation, that she had nothing further to say publicly, and that she was considering suing the BBC, which first reported the story, and other news organisations over infringement of privacy rights. (See 6.05pm.) Labour has challenged Sunak to explain why the Conservatives have not withdrawn support from Saunders and another candidate, Craig Williams, also being investigated in relation to a bet on the date of the general election. (See 5.37pm.)

• Farmers and supermarkets have accused the main political parties of ignoring the risk of severe food shortages in Britain, calling the issue a “worrying blind spot” in their general election campaigns.

• The NHS is engulfed in a summer crisis, senior doctors have said, amid severe ambulance delays, corridors crowded with trolleys and patients facing 25-hour waits in A&E units.

• The gap between tax revenue the UK government expected to raise and the amount paid annually has hit £40bn, putting extra pressure on both main parties over their pledges to crack down on tax avoidance.

• Michael Gove has suggested there is still time for the Conservatives to stage a late comeback and win the election, claiming: “We’re not in ‘Fergie time’ yet.”

That is all from me on this blog.

But we have just launched another election live blog, where I will be covering the BBC Question Time leaders’ special. It’s here.

Laura Saunders, the Conservative candidate being investigated by the Gambling Commission over election date betting allegations, has issued a statement saying she is cooperating with the inquiry. She also says she might sue the BBC over infringement of her privacy rights.

In a statement released on Saunders’ behalf, Nama Zarroug, a solicitor at Astraea Linskills, said:

As the Conservative party has already stated, investigations are ongoing.

Ms Saunders will be cooperating with the Gambling Commission and has nothing further to add.

It is inappropriate to conduct any investigation of this kind via the media, and doing so risks jeopardising the work of the Gambling Commission and the integrity of its investigation.

The publication of the BBC’s story is premature and is a clear infringement of Ms Saunders’ privacy rights. She is considering legal action against the BBC and any other publishers who infringe her privacy rights.

At 8pm tonight the BBC will start showing its live two-hour Question Time leaders’ special. Fiona Bruce is presenting, and the four main party leaders will get half an hour each taking questions from the audience in York, in this order: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader; John Swinney, the SNP leader; Keir Starmer, the Labour leader; and Rishi Sunak, the Conservative leader and PM.

Sunak has not been giving interviews today and he is bound to be asked about the Tory election date betting allegations. Starmer is bound to raise it too.

For a taste of what Starmer is likely to say, here is the open letter about the scandal sent to Sunak by Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator. It was released earlier today.

In the letter McFadden challenges Sunak to explain why the Conservative party has not withdrawn its support from the two candidates who are suspected of using insider information to bet on the date of the election.

It was reported last night that a member of your close protection team has been suspended from his job, and subsequently arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, after a communication from the Gambling Commission to the Metropolitan police.

Can I ask you very simply why you think that a serving police officer should be suspended from his role, because of allegations that he made a bet based on inside information, while the two colleagues of yours who so far stand accused of the same offence – Craig Williams, your PPS (parliamentary private secretary), and Laura Saunders, a member of your CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters) staff and partner of your campaigns director – are still being allowed to stand as Tory candidates in the election on July 4?

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.

If you can see how wrong that is, will you now at the very least remove your support for Mr Williams and Ms Saunders as Conservative election candidates?

At this point in the campaign the Conservative party cannot stop people being identified as Tory candidates because some ballot papers have been printed and postal votes are being sent out. But a party can disown a candidate, as Labour did with its candidate in Rochdale in the byelection earlier this year.

McFadden also challenges Sunak to confirm that the Conservative party will cooperate with the Gambling Commission, which is conducting an investigation.

No-one is above the law and it is essential that the taint of corruption now surrounding the behaviour of some who may have known about the election date is properly investigated and punished.

And he claims the latest allegations are evidence of the “pattern of behaviour” from Tories. He says:

This is a pattern of behaviour running through the modern incarnation of the Conservative party.

It says that – whatever is happening to the rest of the country, whatever the rules may say, and whatever the basic concepts of right and wrong might dictate – the bottom line is can we make a quick profit out of it?

You promised professionalism, integrity and accountability. You have ended up with your own closest colleagues allegedly using their inside knowledge of an election announcement to try and con money out of the bookmakers, and being allowed to stay on in their roles while a serving police officer accused of the same offence has been suspended and arrested.

I urge you to gain a sense of urgency and decency about this matter, and do what is necessary both to establish how wide this scandal goes, and take immediate action against all those implicated.

It will speak volumes if you choose to stay silent and do nothing instead.

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Today the Conservative party posted this video on its main X account, attacking Labour’s policy on small boats, and its refusal to back deportations to Rwanda.

Caroline Lucas, who is standing down as a Green party MP, has described this advert as “disgusting”.

This is so disgusting. Imagine the mindset that made this. People are dying. Afraid. Exploited and desperate. The Tories now chasing Reform to the very hard right and it’s sickening. Just when you think they couldn’t sink any lower …

Farmers and supermarkets have accused the main political parties of ignoring the risk of severe food shortages in Britain, calling the issue a “worrying blind spot” in their general election campaigns, Jack Simpson reports.

The Scottish Greens’ manifesto is proposing a “transformative vision” to deliver a green economy, co-leader Lorna Slater has said.

The party launched its manifesto at an event in Edinburgh this morning and Slater said it was “by far the most hopeful, urgent and ambitious of this election, with bold and credible plans to deliver the change we need and live up to the scale of the crisis we face”.

She went on:

There is nothing inevitable about climate breakdown. We know that we have to radically reduce our emissions and build a fairer, greener economy. But our governments need to show the political will to do it.

That is why we’re offering a plan to transition away from fossil fuels and build the green, clean and renewable industries of the future.

By securing a record vote for the Scottish Greens, we can send shock-waves through our politics and deliver the strongest possible message for people and planet.

As PA Media reports, in the 56-page manifesto, the Greens outline plans for a wealth tax on the richest people in the UK, an end to oil and gas companies being able to advertise, and a stop on all subsidies for fossil fuels. All public sector pension funds, the party said, should also fully divest from fossil fuels.

The party would also levy a private jet tax of £1,000 a head on those using their own planes to travel to or within the UK.

The Scottish Greens do not have any MPs, but they are small but significant force in the Scottish parliament. The collapse of their power-sharing agreement with the SNP lead to Humza Yousaf resigning as first minister.

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The Bank of England would have been more likely to cut interest rates today if there was no election campaign taking place, George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, has claimed.

Speaking on his Political Currency podcast, which he co-hosts with Ed Balls, Osborne said:

The irony here is that if Rishi Sunak had not called an early election, today would be the day when the Bank of England almost certainly would be cutting interest rates for the first time in a couple of years.

If he had waited to the autumn, as all of his senior cabinet were urging him to do and everyone was expecting him to do, he would today not be in the middle of an election campaign. He’d be able to say ‘Look, the interest rates are coming down.’

And over the next few months, he would have had an answer to Rachel Reeves’ charge. She says, ‘Oh, well, people are still feeling [the cost of living crisis]’. But in a few months time, maybe people would start to say, ‘Well, you know, actually, I’m feeling a little bit better off than I was.’

Some commentators have claimed that the Bank of England was reluctant to cut rates today because that would have been seen as a partisan intervention in the election campaign, helpful to the Tories. But the Bank claims the timing of the election did not affect its decision making.

Students in England will graduate this summer each owing £48,000 in maintenance and tuition fee loans, according to figures from the Student Loans Company showing a 9% increase compared to last year. Higher interest rates and increased take up of maintenance loans were behind the rise. A decade ago, in 2013-14, the average loan balance was just £20,000.

The total amount of higher education lending has now reached more than £230bn, up from £205bn in 2022-23. £15bn was the result of accrued interest, while graduates repaid £4.6bn during the year.

Newly published figures also show that previous graduates in England faced a difficult job market, with pay hit by higher inflation.

The Department for Education’s longitudinal education outcomes for 2021-22 show that graduates in employment were paid an average of £29,900 five years after leaving university. Adjusted for inflation, first degree graduates were paid £25,800 (in 2015-16 prices), 2.3% lower than a year earlier.

Government spending rules must be changed to free up funding to tackle climate change, the Alliance party has said. Alliance is the main cross-community party in Northern Ireland and, as PA reports, in its manifesto it called for reform of Treasury fiscal rules to allow for investment in a green new deal.

At the manifesto launch, Naomi Long, the party leader, said the current fiscal rules “reinforce climate inaction” in the UK. She said:

The Leading Change manifesto is not standalone but dovetails with previous Alliance publications, setting out our policy priorities for the next five years over issues which Westminster has direct control or influence.

Alliance is already leading change in a number of areas, including better health outcomes, making communities safer, expanding integrated education and delivering affordable childcare.

We are also working to combat climate change, promote a greener and cleaner environment, and create a dynamic and vibrant economy.

That includes our proposals to change the UK government’s fiscal rules, to better reflect the huge cost associated with climate inaction.

One Alliance MP was elected in 2019, Stephen Farry, in North Down. At this election the party is particularly hoping that Farry will hold his seat and that Long will be able to beat Gavin Robinson, the DUP leader, in East Belfast, which they are both contesting.

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Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has joined those attacking the Conservative party over the election date betting allegations. He told broadcasters:

From all the news that’s breaking the day, it looks like the Conservative party is more corrupt than even its worst critics could have imagined. They are literally stealing the lightbulbs on the way out the door. This is another shocking scandal.

In fact, for all the multiple allegations against Tory MPs, candidates and supporters over the years, stealing lightbulbs is one thing they haven’t been accused of – so “literally” isn’t the right word. But you know what he means.

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Keir Starmer has been campaigning near York today, ahead of tonight’s BBC Question Time leaders’ special, which is being recorded in the city.

Here he is canvassing with Luke Charters, Labour’s candidate in York Outer.

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And here is Starmer addressing reporters.

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Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, has said the inquiry into the two Tory candidates suspected of using inside information to bet on the date of the general election should be allowed to run its course. But if the candidates are found to be guilty, they should be disowned by the party, he said. He told reporters.

The investigation has been set up to look at these allegations, and if anyone is guilty of using [information] that they were privy to, to place bets, to financially benefit from that, it is completely unacceptable, it is completely wrong and they should no longer have the support.

But there is an independent process and I think it’s right that due process is allowed to continue.

Good afternoon. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Amy Sedghi.

And I bring you the news that Boris Johnson is going to publish his memoirs in October. According to HarperCollins, the publisher, it will be called “Unleashed” and it will be “honest, unrestrained and deeply revealing”, covering Johnson’s time as mayor of London and as prime minister. It will be out on 10 October.

“Honest” is not a word normally associated with Johnson, but we live in hope.

In a statement, Johnson himself said:

I am honoured that HarperCollins is publishing my personal account of the huge realignment that took place in UK politics in the last 15 years – and what may lie ahead.

So stand by for my thoughts on Britain’s future to explode over the publishing world like a much shaken bottle of champagne.

If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on X (Twitter). I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use X; I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.

UPDATE: Johnson posted this about his book on X.

Boris Johnson UNLEASHED.

A book that shatters the mould of the modern Prime Ministerial memoir.

Publishing 10th October 2024

Pre-order a copy here – https://t.co/AsjIEPvUQr

I will shortly be handing over the blog to my colleague, Andrew Sparrow. But first, here is a summary of some of today’s key developments:

• The Gambling Commission is looking into a second Conservative candidate over an alleged bet on the timing of the general election. Laura Saunders, the party’s candidate in Bristol North West, is married to Tony Lee, the Conservative party’s director of campaigns.

• The Conservatives confirmed that Tony Lee took leave of absence on Wednesday. The BBC reported that Lee was also being looked into by the commission. It is not known how much money was allegedly staked or whether any bet was made personally by Lee or Saunders.

• Keir Starmer has called on Rishi Sunak to immediately suspend Laura Saunders as a Conservative candidate after it was reported that the Gambling Commission was looking into her over a bet on the timing of the election, saying that if it was a Labour candidate “their feet would not have touched the floor”.

• Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey described what appears to have been happening as “corruption”, when he was asked about the latest Conservative candidate betting allegations as he campaigned in Sheffield. Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said “Rishi Sunak must find his backbone and suspend Laura Saunders”.

• Reform has been urged to suspend its candidate in one of Scotland’s key battleground seats after reports that she posted “sickening” comments about the monarchy. Joanna Hart, who is standing in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, apparently posted “fuck the Royals”, “make Lizzy the last”, and compared the royal family to “benefit scroungers” on social media during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations three years ago.

• The Conservatives have moved closer to “right-wing extremism” since the Brexit vote, Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie has claimed. At the launch of his party’s manifesto in Edinburgh ahead of the 4 July general election, Harvie claimed a lurch to the “far right” is “inevitable” after polling day.

• Also addressing journalists and party activists at the Edinburgh launch, Harvie’s co-leader Lorna Slater said the world is “hurtling towards climate hell”. She added new oil and gas licences are “a fast track to climate breakdown”.

• Labour would pass a law to prevent landlords conducting “bidding wars” between potential renters, Starmer has said. Asked how Labour would tackle escalating rents without implementing a rent cap, he told Sky News: “You can stop the bidding wars because what happens there is the landlord effectively goes between two or three different renters driving the rent up and up and up. We won’t allow them to do that.”

• Starmer denied a Labour party official said a future government could “flatten the whole green belt” to achieve homebuilding plans. At a visit to a housing development in York, the Labour leader told journalists: “No, that wasn’t Labour party officials. That wasn’t Labour party policy.”

• Speaking to Reform supporters in Cheshire on Thursday, Nigel Farage said “something remarkable” was happening with younger voters. The Reform UK leader said he’d seen support for his party from generation Z “rapidly” increasing.

• Michael Gove has suggested there is still time for the Conservatives to stage a late comeback and win the election, claiming: “We’re not in ‘Fergie time’ yet.” Gove has also told the BBC that Labour could install “yes men and women” in public bodies if it wins a large majority at the election.

• Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said it is not “fair” to claim there is “sustained economic scarring” from Liz Truss’s mini-budget. Speaking at the Times CEO summit in London, Hunt added that sthe outcome of his seat is “too close to call” and a Tory win in the election is not “the most likely outcome”.

• The NHS will need £38bn more a year than planned by the end of the next parliament in order to cut the care backlog and end long treatment delays, political parties have been warned. Labour and Conservative promises on NHS funding “fall well short” of what the beleaguered health service needs to recover from years of underinvestment, according to the Health Foundation.

Keir Starmer has denied a Labour party official said a future government could “flatten the whole green belt” to achieve homebuilding plans.

The PA news agency reports that Politico’s London Playbook quoted an unnamed party official on Thursday, who said: “I don’t care if we flatten the whole green belt, we just need more houses in this country.”

Prime minister Rishi Sunak posted the quote to his feed on X with the caption: “Good to finally get Labour’s real views on Britain’s green belt.”

At a visit to a housing development in York, Starmer told journalists:

No, that wasn’t Labour party officials. That wasn’t Labour party policy.

What we will do is we will build the one and a half million houses that we need over the next five years on projects like this, with the facilities they need, because what you need here is the schools and the GPs and the facilities that are needed for housing.

We will get on and do the building we need to do, but we’d of course protect the countryside, as you’d expect.”

Labour has pledged to build 1.5m new homes over the next five years, if elected.

To achieve this, the party has vowed to reform planning rules to build homes on the so-called grey belt, which it describes as poor quality land, car parks and wasteland.

The party also plans a ban on no-fault evictions, introducing legal protections for tenants when it comes to mould, and putting an end to rental bidding wars and upfront payments.

Speaking to Reform supporters in Cheshire, Nigel Farage said “something remarkable” was happening with younger voters.

The Reform UK leader said:

We are not doing well with millennials. The 25 to 35s we’re not doing well with, but generation Z, Gen Z, the 15 to 25s, something remarkable, I mean truly remarkable, is happening.

Our support in that age bracket is rapidly, and I mean rapidly, going up.

The following I’ve built up on TikTok, Instagram, those sort of accounts is amazing.”

He also said football supporters at the Euro 2024 tournament in Germany had been “wearing Farage masks”.

He added:

There’s an awakening in a younger generation who’ve had enough of being dictated to, had enough of being lectured to and they’re seeing through the BS they’re getting in schools and universities.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey was asked about the latest Conservative candidate betting allegations as he campaigned in Sheffield, describing what appears to have been happening as “corruption”.

He said:

It think it’s quite awful. The idea that you bet on something when you know the result, that is immoral, it is illegal, and I can’t believe people at the top of the Conservative party are doing this and have allowed this to happen.

This is corruption, frankly, and it needs to have a heavy hand from the top.”

Davey said:

We think there should be a Cabinet Office inquiry. I think the Gambling Commission will rightly look at this.

I hope they come down heavy on those people who look like – I haven’t seen the details but they look like – they’ve acted illegally and immorally.”

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Davey was talking to the media during a visit to Whinfell Quarry Gardens in the city, where he built insect boxes with volunteers as well as helping with weeding.

The issue of transition from fossil fuels is one of the most important in Scotland’s election campaign, and the SNP is still struggling with the specifics of its policy on new oil and gas licences.

At FMQs this lunchtime, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross attacked the SNP’s latest position – set out in their manifesto yesterday – to subject any new application to a “climate compatibility assessment”.

This middling position – rather than a presumption against new licenses, the policy of his predecessor-before-last Nicola Sturgeon – suits the SNP in an election campaign where they are battling for votes against the Tories in the north-east, where the UK’s oil industry is based.

Ross chided Swinney, the leader of the SNP, describing this as “a temporary position for the SNP because their position is very clear: they don’t and will not stand up for Scotland’s oil and gas industry, they are willing to put tens of thousands of jobs and the north-east economy at risk”.

Swinney denied this, saying that is was the Tories, and Rishi Sunak’s sanctioning of one hundred new licences: “That is irresponsible, that will accelerate the climate emergency.”

But Swinney also faces criticism from climate campaigners, who described his manifesto position as “confused and disappointing”.

Tessa Khan, executive director at Uplift, which campaign for swift and fair transition, said:

Given that the world’s experts have said there can be no new oil and gas fields if we’re to have a hope of staying within safe climate limits, there is no such thing as a ‘climate compatible’ new oilfield.

The SNP should listen to its voter base – less than one-third of whom support new licensing in the North Sea – instead of the oil and gas giants who want to keep making as much as they can for as long as they can.”

Keir Starmer has called on Rishi Sunak to immediately suspend Laura Saunders as a Conservative candidate after it was reported that the Gambling Commission was looking into her over a bet on the timing of the election, saying that if it was a Labour candidate “their feet would not have touched the floor”.

Speaking to reporters at a housing development on the edge of York, a visit tied into Labour announcements on housing, Starmer was asked what should happen in the case.

Starmer said:

This candidate should be suspended, and it’s very telling that Rishi Sunak has not already done that. If it was one of my candidates, their feet would not have touched the floor. There’s a wider point here, which is we’ve now had 14 years of chaos and division of politics. This is about self entitlement.”

Starmer said Sunak should give a full account of what had happened, condemning what he called “the politics of self entitlement, where politicians are sort of in it for themselves”.