UPDATED (3/7/24): Conservatives Betting On The Election Date: We Ask Tory Candidates To Rule Themselves Out

Ben Burcombe-Filer
Tory Candidate for Southampton Test
Photo: used with permission B Burcombe-Filer*

 

UPDATED (3/7/234): It is late on the Eve of Polling Day. STILL no response!

Neither the Test nor the Itchen candidates ruled themselves out of betting on elections, although we waited for a week for them to respond to our request.

 

UPDATED (28/6/24): No response from Sidney Yankson. No response from Ben Burcombe-Filer. This is despite even more revelations about Tory betting and candidates (finally) being dropped by the Tories. And Labour is also now embroiled in the scandal too. How deep does the rabbit hole go?

Southampton Green Party, both of whose Southampton candidates refused to answer our six basic questions to all candidates, have also declined to comment on the betting scandal.

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You may be aware of the ongoing investigations by the Gambling Commission into betting on the election date. The date was announced by Rishi Sunak, which is his prerogative as Prime Minister. It was a surprise date, a so-called "snap election" for which the date would normally be kept to a small group of people. 

The Prime Minister has failed to act to suspend candidates, even Tory candidate Craig Williams who has admitted publicly that he placed a bet. Mr Williams was also an "aide" to Rishi Sunak.

 

But then Mr Sunak, along with the former disgraced Prime Minster Boris Johnson, also in the Conservative Party, were fined for breaking Covid rules, while the rest of the country faced curbs on their freedoms and being banned from tending to their loved ones. 

 

Johnson went in shame but somehow Sunak survived and became Prime Minister, chosen despite losing the Conservatives leadership election to 44-day disgraced Prime Minister, Liz Truss. When Sunak resigned from Boris Johnson's Government, in his resignation letter, he said that he thought that:

 

"the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously. I recognise this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning"

 

Yet Sunak has been embroiled in scandal after scandal, just like his predecessors.

 

Yes, the Tories have lurched from one failed Prime Minister to another - Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, and now Sunak. He is claiming that he has had success, but in The Sun TV debate with Keir Starmer, has also blamed his predecessors.

If the Tories are destroyed at the 2024 General Election, it seems reasonable that at least some voters will enjoy contributing to their demise. The betting scandal is like the disgraced sequence of failed premiers, and is just another in a long line of shameful events that are an insult to democracy. Five prime ministers from 2010 to 2024, with four of them, yes four! resigning!

 

Now it has become evident that the Commission is investigating even more Conservatives, be they candidates or party officers. Has Sunak made any difference to the Tory plight, not if the opinion polls are to be believed. Since he stopped giving away taxpayers money, his approval ratings have got worse and worse.

 

We Ask The Conservative Southampton Candidates About Betting

Until the identities of all those investigated are named, and it has not been the Gambling Commission that has revealed any names so far, the cloud of suspicion hangs over the Conservative Party and their candidates and officers. Questions arise:

 

1. Who knew?
2. What did they know?
3. When did they know it?

 

So we are trying to inform the voters in Southampton about the candidates here, as this may materially affect their vote.

In this vein, we have asked both Itchen Tory candidate Sidney Yankson and Test Tory candidate Ben Burcombe-Filer the following questions:

Will you state categorically that you did not place a bet on the Election date?

The Labour campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden has called on the Gambling Commission to name those under investigation.

 

Do you agree with him?

On the local BBC Politics programme on 23rd June, Peter Henley asked Bournemouth candidate and former MP Tobias Ellwood about it. Mr Ellwood said that parliamentarians should be banned in future. 

 

Would you agree that it should be obvious to everyone that it should not be done anyway?

 

We await their responses.

 

Why Southampton Independents Is Covering the 2024 General Election

Southampton Independents recommends no particular candidate in the 2024 General Election. We publish this information and the information about the other candidates to help inform Southampton residents for their vote, or for them to choose not to vote or to positively spoil their ballot by writing "none of the above". It's your choice.

* We would have shown a photo of Sidney Yankson, but he has never responded to our request for a photo, or to any of our questions. Perhaps he is spending more time in Kensington, or is planning to be there again on 5th July, despite claiming that since January he now lives in Southampton? Yes, we have asked him about that too.