TheMetropolitan police have indicated that the dropped Conservative candidate Craig Williams could come under the scope of a criminal investigation into betting on the election that has overshadowed Rishi Sunak’s campaign.
The Guardian’s Pippa CrerarandRob Davies report:
Scotland Yard will investigate any suspicious bets that could represent a misconduct in public office offence, while the Gambling Commission will continue to look at whether betting rules were broken.
The prime minister repeatedly refused to say whether he told Williams, his closest parliamentary aide, about the date of the election, wrongly claiming he could prejudice the watchdog’s inquiry.
The Tories have withdrawn the party’s support for Williams’ campaign to be returned as the MP for the Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr seat, after he admitted having a “flutter” on the election date.
In the beating sunshine deep in the heart of one of the Conservatives’ safest Midlands seats, Wes Streeting is slapping on factor 50 for another afternoon in pursuit of a historic Labour majority. It is in these safe seats where it will be seen whether the extinction-level predictions for the Tories are accurate.
Streeting, often named as a potential future Labour leader, has spent his entire career as a campaigner deeply involved in local organising. He is in demand from candidates partly because he is such a comfortable doorstep activist, who bangs on doors with the vigour normally reserved for use by police officers or bailiffs.
The party’s message this week is an all-out war on complacency. But Streeting says he is genuinely encountering far more undecided voters than he had anticipated and that he has not seen the Labour landslide the polls have predicted. “I don’t think they take into account the millions of undecided voters who will ultimately decide whether there is a Labour government,” he said.
The Daily Record has an interview with former Countdown host Carol Vordeman, who, it says, has “done sums to show how tactical voting can ensure party’s number is up”. The headline is, We can reduce Tories to rubble:
A bit more on Nigel Farage’s response to remarks made by Reform UK candidates, courtesy of PA:
At a £5-a-head event on the campaign trail in Boston, Lincolnshire, Farage said:
We’ve had one or two candidates that have said things they shouldn’t have said. In most cases they’re just speaking like ordinary folk.
“They’re not part of the mainstream political Oxbridge speak, we understand that. In some cases one or two people let us down and we let them go.
“Well, compare that to the international price fixing and betting ring that is the modern day Conservative Party.”
He made his remarks moments after Channel 4 News broadcast an undercover investigation into Reform UK’s Clacton campaign, where Farage is contesting the seat against Conservative incumbent Giles Watling.
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live elections coverage with me, Helen Livingstone.
This morning’s top story: a Reform UK activist in the constituency where Nigel Farage is standing has been secretly filmed making extremely racist comments about Rishi Sunak, as well as using Islamophobic, and other offensive language, the Guardian’s Peter Walker reports.
Farage said he was “dismayed” by the views expressed by Andrew Parker, a Reform canvasser, who was filmed as part of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News.
Parker also said asylum seekers should be shot as “target practice”.
In a statement to Channel 4 News, Parker said Farage and Reform were not aware of his views, and he was sorry if they “have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute”.
The channel also secretly filmed George Jones, a longtime party activist who organises events for Farage, making homophobic comments, calling the Pride flag “degenerate”.