A senior British minister compared the latest scandal involving Tory candidates accused of betting on the election date to Partygate, a series of Covid-era parties that toppled Boris Johnson from power.
Housing minister Michael Gove compared the betting allegations to the Partygate scandal in an interview with The Times newspaper on Saturday.
“It seems there’s one rule for them and one rule for us … that’s the most damaging thing,” said Gove, who is standing down this election after 14 years as an MP.
“It was damaging during Partygate and it is damaging here too,” he said.
Prime Minister Johnson was forced to step down in 2022 following public anger over revelations of parties held in Downing Street while the rest of the country was in lockdown during the pandemic.
Now another senior Conservative Party leader has been caught up in the latest scandal.
The party’s chief data officer, Nick Mason, has taken leave after he was accused of betting on the timing of the election, the PA news agency reported on Saturday.
Mason is being investigated by betting regulators after being accused of placing dozens of bets on the date of the election, according to the Times. He is the fourth Tory figure to be caught up in the scandal.
‘Incredibly harmful’
The party’s campaign director resigned from his post on Thursday after reports that he and his wife, who is a Tory candidate in the July 4 election, are under investigation by the Gambling Commission.
The scandal erupted a week ago when Craig Williams, a Tory candidate and Sunak’s ministerial colleague, said he was being investigated for placing bets on the election before its date had been announced.
On Wednesday, London police said one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s security guards had been arrested for allegedly placing a bet on the date.
Sunak said he was “deeply angry” by the revelations.
“If anyone is found to have breached the rules then not only will they face the full consequences of the law, but I will also ensure they are expelled from the Conservative Party,” he said earlier this week.
Political betting is permitted in the UK, including on the date of elections, but using insider information to do so is against the law.
The probe will spell further trouble for Sunak, whose party has trailed Labour by about 20 points for the past two years, raising the prospect of his ouster from power after 14 years.
Gove said those involved in the betting scandal were “sucking the oxygen out of the campaign”.
He again compared it to Partygate, saying: “Some people create a very harmful atmosphere for a party.
“So it’s bad in itself, but it’s also devastating to the efforts of all the good people who are currently working hard for the Conservative vote.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
