Betting is the rotten Tories’ final scandal

There is no surer sign that a party is on its way out then when even its scandals feel pathetic.

When, just under two weeks ago, it emerged that Rishi Sunak’s parliamentary aide Craig Williams had placed a bet on the timing of the general election less than three days after Sunak made the shock call there was some initial outrage – but also a weary sense of despair.

The alleged wrongdoing was, after all, just so stupid and so petty. This was not someone who was set to gain millions, or even thousands, from his misuse of information he’d gained through his public office. Instead, Williams had reportedly placed a bet of around £100, which would return him around £500.

What sane person in a well-paid job would breach the standard of public life and potentially commit a criminal offence – and stymie their future career prospects – for so small a reward? The alleged bet smacked of either utter stupidity through ignorance of the rules, or utter arrogance about not getting caught.

Given the relentless stream of Conservative ethics scandals, the Williams incident was bad for Sunak and his campaign, but the world might have moved on – until it turned out merely to be the tip of an iceberg that is still emerging.

Further reporting in different outlets revealed that a Conservative candidate had also allegedly placed a bet. And then that one of Sunak’s police protection officers had been arrested for allegedly doing the same.

The Conservatives’ campaign director was put on a “leave of absence” related to the betting scandal. The Sunday Times now reports that the party’s head of data is also now on a “leave of absence” – less than two weeks before election day – for allegedly placing “dozens” of bets on the election timing. The Gambling Commission is said to believe that there may be as many as several dozen more Conservatives’ betting patterns to investigate.

People have a habit of both misusing and misunderstanding the phrase “one bad apple”, which ends “…spoils the barrel”. In reality, a bad apple in a barrel releases chemicals that accelerates the decomposition of every other apple in there: if you find one, there will be more.

This petty, dismal, scandal feels like the ultimate embodiment of the phrase. Upon hearing about an imminent election to decide who governs the country – and to decide the fate of their political party – the allegation is either that multiple Conservatives close to Rishi Sunak each spontaneously decided to place a bet using their insider knowledge, or else that a group of them coordinated to share this ‘brilliant’ idea and no-one persuaded them not to do it.

Rishi Sunak now says he is furious – some might say “shocked, shocked” – to hear about the betting going on all around him. Reasonable people will suspect he’s furious it’s a big story: when the Williams allegations were first reported, Sunak’s statement included neither anger nor an apology. Both of those waited until the story hit the BBC.

While Sunak himself is not accused of betting on the election, he’s certainly contributed to the culture: not only did he make a horribly ill-judged and poor taste on-air bet for £1,000 with Piers Morgan, he then refused to pay it out when he lost. Bad judgment often flows from the top.

Thanks to what looks like little more than petty and venal attempts to cash in on behalf of multiple senior aides, the Conservative campaign has lost several of its key staff just before election day, and is having to go to the polls with its ethical bankruptcy once again right in the spotlight.

Is this how British Conservativism ends? Not with a bang, but a flutter?