Tory party withdraws support from two candidates accused of suspect election date bets
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jun/25/uk-general-election-live-updates-latest-today-tories-labour-betting-scandal-polls
Posted by Yaarmehearty
Tory party withdraws support from two candidates accused of suspect election date bets
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jun/25/uk-general-election-live-updates-latest-today-tories-labour-betting-scandal-polls
Posted by Yaarmehearty
11 Comments
Surely the Tory party needs to just give up and disband now, right?
The only headlines they are making are those of incompetence, sleaze or breaking the law.
Too late to kill the story. Should have been dropped sharpish, instead it just rumbled on like a bad smell.
Makes the PM look weak.
What happens if either candidate is elected? Is the whip immediately withdrawn? If there’s no path to redemption (ie six months on the naughty step) then why not expel them from the party now?
Took them fucking long enough. I expect they are expecting arrests soon.
Another case of Sunak doing the right thing eventually after waiting far too long and only after pressure from fellow Tories.
This man has literally zero leadership skills or authority, even with his own party. How hasn’t he learned his lesson yet? He’s this exact mistake multiple times and it always makes him look weak.
Craig Williams – Montgomeryshire. Tory safe seat, majority of over 35%. Been Conservative since 2010 when it was gained from the Lib Dems.
Laura Saunders – Bristol North West. Labour seat.
Not ideal the Tories are removing support from a safe seat.
Now the story is how weak Sunak is….he’s just not very good at this. Whilst he’s sending out loads of talking heads to say “but Rayner”, we all knew this would need to happen. Some of the mental gymnastics to defend law breaking.
I don’t like political leaders as they tend to be ruthless and quite nasty…but you can see why they have to be
Doing the inevitable after the inevitable was inevitable.
The man has no leadership ability whatsoever.
Starmer would have acted faster, after consulting his focus group. Maybe Rishi needs one too.
Hang on, there’s another angle here:
1) The vast majority of Tory MPs, including ministers, reacted with apparently genuine surprise to the election (cancelling holidays, rearranging diaries, etc). I have no problem believing that no-one but the inner circle knew that the election would be in July.
2) OK, fine, so a few of the insiders placed inside bets and made cheap cash out of it. OK, understood, *some* people around the PM knew, just not the wider party.
3) But two random candidates in remote seats knew? But the main body of MPs, including the cabinet, did not? How does that work? That makes absolutely no sense from what we appear to know about the election otherwise.
4) So- was the date of the election leaked to a specific few nobodies *specifically* to gain an illicit betting advantage; but *withheld* from the mainstream party to prevent leaks? I.e. was the odd way the election was called *deliberately manipulated* for petty financial gain?
I’m really not a tinfoil hat wearer most of the time, but I’m struggling to think of a coherent explanation for this otherwise.
It may have been said already, but Christ- the paucity of ambition.
“I know something special, I’ll make £600 off it even though I know it’s dodgy, that’s a nice weekend away.”
Not only are they cheats and grifters, but they’re so fucking *small time*.