Rishi Sunak DROPS two Tory candidates engulfed in election betting scandal saying ‘we can no longer support them’

RISHI Sunak has dropped two candidates mired in the election betting scandal – including his closest Parliamentary aide.

The Tory party said it had withdrawn support for Craig Williams and Laura Saunders after both were named as part of a Gambling Commission probe into suspicious bets on the date of the Election.

Dan Charity

The decision is said to have been approved by the Conservative Party board last night[/caption]

It comes after two weeks of sustained pressure from Labour for the Tories to name everyone involved in the probe.

So far Mr Williams, who is Rishi Sunak’s private parliamentary secretary, Ms Saunders and Tory chief data officer Nick Mason are reported to have placed bets.

Williams, the candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, appeared to admit betting on the election date just days before Mr Sunak announced it, conceding he made a “huge error of judgement” over a £100 bet.

Ms Saunders is running for the Tories in Bristol North West and has worked for the party for nine years.

Her husband Tony Lee, who runs the party’s local campaign units, is on a leave of absence after it was reported he is also being probed by the gambling watchdog.

A close protection officer from the Met Police has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in relation to another bet.

A Conservative Party spokesman said this morning: “As a result of ongoing internal enquiries, 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.”

Despite the fresh twist, both will still appear on ballot papers as Conservative candidates as the deadline to change voting slips passed earlier this month.

Speaking at a campaign stop this morning, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked: “Why didn’t this happen a week ago?”

It comes after the PM said he’s “incredibly angry” about the election betting scandal.

Speaking to The Sun’s Political Editor Harry Cole on our Never Mind The Ballots election showdown last night, the Prime Minister insisted anyone involved must “face the full consequences”.

Sitting in front of Sun readers, Mr Sunak said: “I’ve been crystal clear, if anyone has broken the rules and not upheld the standards, I would expect they will be held to account.

“They should face the consequences of the law, and they will be booted out of the Conservative Party.

“I was as angry as anybody when I heard about these things. The right thing to do is to get to the bottom of this and investigate this properly.”

Rishi told our Political Editor to “be careful” as he faced an intense grilling – and repeated he couldn’t comment on independent probes.

Asked if the scandal showed the government lacked integrity, Rishi said: “I mean, Harry, just be careful. There are independent inquiries ongoing.”