Vincent McAviney: UK Correspondent on the betting scandal facing the Tories

Labour’s lead in the UK election is holding steady as the Tories deal with a scandal. 

The party has admitted that their campaign head, Tony Lee, placed bets on the timing of the vote, allegedly just days before Sunak went public. 

The BBC revealed that Tory candidate Laura Sanders, wife of Lee, is also being investigated by Britain’s Gambling Commission. 

UK Correspondent Vincent McAviney told Mike Hosking that it’s a huge scandal that these people have seemingly used insider information to infringe the UK’s betting laws. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We go into mecavenyent, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
In a campaign where farage has also stolen the headlines
and the polls are sort of a constant debating point.
Just what we needed was a good old, bitting scandal,
wasn't it. Who could have seen this coming?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, I mean you say a good old scandal. We
haven't had a scandal like this before, and it keeps
rumbling on. So what this is is allegedly people that
had early knowledge of the surprise election date. Rishi Sunac
called it three weeks ago. It's in two weeks time,
on the on the fourth of July. And first, a

(00:36):
few weeks ago we had an MP who was an
advisor to Richie Sunac. He was accused of having placed
a one hundred pound bet and was under investigation by
the UK's Gambling Commission. Then yesterday one of Rishi Sunac's
close protection police officers was arrested over alleged bets about
the timing of the election. And then today a Conservative

(01:00):
Party candidate, Laura Saunders has it's been announced that she
is being investigated for doing the same. And her husband
is the Conservative Party's director of campaign. So someone who
would absolutely have likely known the date of that election
early and they're being investigated, so he is stepped back
from that role temporarily. So it is a huge scandal

(01:23):
here that these people seem to have really decided to
use what they know, the insider information they have, and
infringe the sort of UK's betting laws to place these
bets watching.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Eldister Campbell has been about the place saying he doesn't
believe the polls at the moment. That's something really awry
going on. But we're now talking about aren't we rischie
Sonnik potentially losing his seat and no one as Prime
minister has ever lost their seat, have they?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, that's right. It would be remarkable, an unprecedented loss
for Rishie Sounak if he lost the seat. He is
currently campaigning in some very un usual seats, seats where
they've got more than a twenty thousand or places he'd
never be or a prime minister in office which should
never be campaigning, has never had to campaign before. But

(02:10):
they're so worried. I mean, they're talking about half of
the cabinet going here on the night of the election,
will be covering it from the Chancellor's constituency Jeremy Hunt.
He's been an MP since two thousand and five. He's
been Chancellor, Foreign Secretary, Health Secretary, big Jobs. He is
expected to lose his seat at the moment. Several other
very senior members of the government, so it really could
be an unprecedented night for the Conservative Party. Farishi Sunak Well, hey,

(02:33):
it might be what he wants because after such a
dreadful loss as we're expecting, he probably doesn't want to
stick around much longer. Lots of rumors that he wants
to leave and move to California.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
And give us thee Ian mckill an update because it
seemed bad that it wasn't as bad and we were
expecting the returner. Now he's not returning.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yasaran McKellen is currently performing in the West End in
a play called Player Kings Now. He fell from the
stage a few nights ago. He had to have medical attention.
He's had physiotherapy and scans, but they've come out with
a statement to say that he's doing well. He's recovering.
He won't be able to fill the remaining performances at

(03:12):
the nol Cower Theater here in London's West End, but
the play is transferring to Bristol next month and it's
hope that he'll be able to take part in that.
So some good news that he's getting better. He is,
of course eighty five. It is incredible that he still
does these huge productions and that's just hope he gets
better quickly.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
You bit, Vincent, have a good weekend catch up, so
appreciate it very much. Vincent mcavinnie out of Britain.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
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Speaker 1 (03:40):
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