Gambling scandal is a fitting way for tawdry Tories to end last five years

The voter was referring to the latest scandal which has overshadowed the Conservatives’ election campaign. Craig Williams, one of Sunak’s closest aides, has admitted having a “flutter” on the date of the election three days before the Prime Minister’s announcement on the steps of Downing Street.

Another Conservative candidate Laura Saunders, who happens to be married to the Tory campaign director, is being investigated by the Gambling Commission. A Metropolitan Police officer, who is based in Downing Street, has been arrested, accused of using insider information for financial gain. It really is a sorry state of affairs.

On Question Time, I thought Sunak answered well. He said he was “incredibly angry” and threatened to “boot out” anyone who was found to have broken the rules. And notably, he didn’t deny the central charge - that the latest sleaze was symptomatic of the last five years of Tory rule. 

How can you? Even before the 2019 election was called Boris Johnson illegally prorogued Parliament to block MPs from debating Brexit. Then there was the Prime Minister’s defence  of Dominic Cummings for his lockdown-busting trip to County Durham, while he had Covid.

Then came Partygate, the scandal that started Johnson’s downfall, and even his wallpaper had a sleaze investigation into it. It was eventually the appointment of Chris Pincher that brought him down, a man who Johnson made Deputy Chief Whip despite knowing he had sexual misconduct allegations against him. 

Liz Truss arrived in Downing Street next and detonated any hope of the Conservatives winning another election with her disastrous mini-Budget. Her whirlwind 49 days in office still gets brought up on the doorstep regularly by angry voters, too furious to back Sunak’s party. 

Sunak’s own mini-Budget moment came as he left D-Day commemorations early, offering a salivating Nigel Farage some fresh red meat on his return to front-line politics. And now this gambling scandal has once again blown apart the remnants of the Tory campaign. 

It is so tawdry and yet so obvious. A sign of the one rule for us another for them, that people believe has summed up the Tories last five years in power. If the Conservatives do go on to lose the election, as the polls suggest, it’s a fitting way for them to bow out after half a decade of scandal.  

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday