Latest news on the parliamentary election: Labour suspends candidate who had bet on a Tories victory

This has now become a political nightmare, especially for the Conservatives, with accusations that are easy to understand but difficult to defend.

And to make the political situation even bleaker for the Tories, there is a horror show of daily developments and revelations, garnished with criticism from within the party and beyond (some public, many more private) claiming Rishi Sunak could have acted more quickly.

Tonight’s news that a Labour candidate and donor has been suspended underlines that this is not a purely Conservative problem, but Labour is trying to argue that their immediate response contrasts with a perceived slowness on the part of the Tories.

Most people miss most of what is happening in politics most of the time. And yet we are in that narrowest of windows of time right now; where ballots lie on kitchen tables waiting for the next post, where church and school halls await their designation as polling stations.

Now is the moment of decision, when millions of people may be receptive to the parties’ final messages – if they can hear them at all – and to the major issues at the heart of the election campaign.

And there is one big issue – this betting saga – that is dominating at least the national news coverage, and it is to be expected that there will be more revelations.

And for a party that has been in government for 14 years, that started this campaign on the wrong foot and that – if the polls are to be believed – has struggled to make any headway over the last five weeks, the Conservatives are entering a position that is, to say the least, unenviable.