Sunak suspends two candidates investigated for election betting scandal
After many days of this story dominating the headlines, Rishi Sunak today suspended two Conservative candidates who are under investigation by the Gambling Commission as part of the election betting scandal.
Craig Williams, who is standing in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, and Laura Saunders, candidate for Bristol North West, will no longer have the backing of the party after a spokesperson revealed that the Gambling Commission confirmed that suspension will “not compromise the investigation”.
Of course, that doesn’t mean to say it was the Gambling Commission holding up the suspension decision, and criticism is already being made as to why it took so long to announce – with Keir Starmer asking, “why didn’t he do this earlier?”
With five more police officers also alleged to have placed election date bets too, expect this story to rumble on into the parliament irrespective of how the Prime Minister and his advisors handle it during the campaign.
Starmer pledges to tackle knife crime
Keir Starmer looked to bolster his law and order credentials today by announcing a new series of measures to address knife crime.
The former head of the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that he would bring online retailers into a new coalition to tackle the sale of weapons online, with reducing knife crime seen to be a “moral mission” for Starmer. He will also address an annual summit to track progress of halving knife crime incidents within a decade.
Responding to the announcements from Labour, Policing Minister Chris Philp criticised Labour’s record on knife crime in London, where knife crime has risen by 20% - with the Tories planning on recruiting 8,000 more police officers if they win re-election next week.
Farage calls for Royal Marines to take migrants back to France
Nigel Farage has called for the Royal Marines to be deployed to pick up migrants in the English Channel and take them back to French beaches.
Speaking to The Times onboard a fishing boat in the Channel, Farage accepted that such a policy would cause a huge diplomatic row with France, but in turn criticised French warships escorting migrant boats into UK territorial waters.
The announcement comes on the day that it is expected the 50,000th migrant will have cross into the UK since October 2022, with several boats bringing approximately 150 migrants today alone.
Insights of the day
Will Sunak lose his seat? That’s the question that polling guru and Britain Elects Co-Founder Ben Walker has tried to answer in a fascinating article for the New Statesmantoday. His answer? It’s doubtful – but it’s more likely than we might think.
Freddie Hayward has a good piece in this morning’s New Statesman (no, we’re not on commission) assessing whether a future Labour government will be able to satisfy its broad, anti-Conservative coalition of voters.
The FT has an interesting analysis of Labour’s volunteer data, which shows that the party is diverting is helping out the Lib Dems by diverting resources away from Tory Lib Dem battleground seats in the South West.
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