It never rains but pours for Rishi Sunak. After a weekend of negative headlines over the Tory gambling scandal and a grilling on the Sun’s leaders’ election special, the Prime Minister has decided to take action. In a statement released this morning, a Conservative spokesman said the party is withdrawing support from the two Tory candidates being investigated by the Gambling Commission:
‘As a result of ongoing internal inquiries, we have concluded that we can no longer support Craig Williams or Laura Saunders as Parliamentary Candidates at the forthcoming General Election. We have checked with the Gambling Commission that this decision does not compromise the investigation that they are conducting, which is rightly independent and ongoing.’
So, why now? Up until this morning, the line from Sunak and his team was that it would be wrong to suspend a Tory candidate as it would interrupt the Gambling Commission’s investigation – but an internal investigation was underway.
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