- author, Henry Zeffman
- role, Chief Political Correspondent, BBC News
- twitter,
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The Conservative Party has withdrawn its support for two candidates under investigation for allegedly betting on the date of the general election.
Both Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr candidate Craig Williams and Bristol North West candidate Laura Saunders are under investigation by the Gambling Commission.
The pair will still stand under the Conservative banner but the decision means that if elected they will run as independents, pending the outcome of the investigation.
When asked by the BBC, he refused to say whether he had made any bets based on inside information.
A spokesman for Mr Sanders said he would cooperate with the Gambling Commission and had nothing further to add.
A Conservative spokesman said: “Following an ongoing internal investigation, we have concluded that we cannot support Craig Williams and Laura Sanders as parliamentary candidates in the upcoming general election.”
“We have checked with the Gambling Commission and they have confirmed that this decision will not impede their ongoing investigation, which of course continues independently.”
Responding to news that support for the candidate had been withdrawn, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “Why didn’t they do this a week ago?”
Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “When these scandals came to light Rishi Sunak should have taken immediate action but he has hesitated and procrastinated.”
Earlier, two sources told the BBC that the party’s executive committee was holding emergency talks about how to respond to the incident.
Two Conservative staff have also been placed on administrative leave after it emerged they were under investigation by the Gambling Commission.
The BBC was told the Gambling Commission is considering whether to involve more police officers.
The Metropolitan police have denied reports that they leaked the names of people being investigated over allegations of election day gambling.
