Will the Conservative Party ever be rid of the taint of sleaze? Don’t bet on it…

As a second Tory candidate faces a gambling probe over election betting, the party risks confirming the worst stereotypes of politicians as out for themselves, rather than in public service for the common good, says John Rentoul

Tory candidate Laura Saunders, who previously worked at Conservative Campaign HQ, is facing a Gambling Commission investigation (Laura Saunders/X)

Despite the low ethical standards set by the Conservative Party in recent times, the disclosure of three alleged bets on the timing of the election still comes as a shock.

The last Tory landslide election defeat in 1997 followed a string of disclosures about the misconduct of its MPs. Some were sex scandals that seemed to contradict Tory rhetoric about family values; others involved asking parliamentary questions in return for cash in brown envelopes; all were wrapped up in the damning word “sleaze”.

But they seem quaint and old-fashioned compared with the news that alleged bets on the date of the election are being investigated by the Gambling Commission. All three are linked to Tory HQ, and therefore to Rishi Sunak – although there is no suggestion that he is involved in any way.

The latest allegation concerns Laura Saunders, the Tory candidate in Bristol North West, who is married to the party’s campaigns director Tony Lee. Moreover, Saunders worked at Conservative HQ until recently. It is not yet known what involvement they are alleged to have had.

A separate investigation is being carried out by the police into one of the prime minister’s police protection team who has been suspended after being arrested on Monday.

The Gambling Commission is also investigating Craig Williams, a Tory MP who was an aide to the prime minister. As parliamentary private secretary to Sunak, his job was to act as the link between the prime minister and his MPs.

Three days before Mr Sunak announced the 4 July election, Williams placed a £100 bet that it would take place in July. He has already apologised for his “huge error of judgement”.

Losing an election is bad enough – but with a Labour victory becoming more certain by the day, the Tories face a worse fate than that. They risk going down in history as disgraced and corrupt.

After two years of the moral chaos of Boris Johnson’s premiership, Sunak appeared to offer the chance of a fresh start. “Integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level,” he promised. His personal wealth seemed to guarantee his own sea-green incorruptibility, and he offered to lead by example.

It seemed that the Tory party could put behind it the equivocations over donors paying for gold wallpaper in Downing Street, and a prime minister prepared to overrule his independent adviser on ministerial standards, the independent House of Lords Appointments Commission and even the House of Commons’ own standards committee, which found Owen Paterson, one of Johnson’s supporters, in breach of the rules against paid lobbying.

Instead, if these latest allegations are proven, all that will be held against the Conservative Party for years to come, added to and reinforced by the greed, foolishness and irresponsibility of people in top Tory circles. The word “sleaze” seems quite a mild way of summing up their alleged behaviour.

How hard can it be to say to yourself, if you work in politics, “Do not bet on politics”? If they did what is alleged, how can these people not realise how their actions will look to the British people, to whom they are accountable and for whom they are supposed to be engaged in public service?

It may take years for the Tories to get rid of this reputation. On top of the reckless and calamitous economic policies of Liz Truss, the narcissism of Boris Johnson and the out-of-touch blunder by Sunak of leaving the D-Day commemoration early, the taint of sleaze will tarnish the Conservative Party for the foreseeable future.

We will find out eventually what has happened and who did what, but at a time when the voters are more disillusioned with politics and politicians than usual, it takes a special genius to confirm the worst stereotypes of politicians as “out for themselves”, rather than in public service for the common good.