British police expand investigation into election betting

The Met had previously announced that one of its officials had been arrested on suspicion of abuse of office and given restricted duties following allegations related to election betting.

It has now been discovered that six other officials placed bets on the election date. The gambling supervisory authority is now investigating them.

In an update on the growing scandal on Thursday, the Met said its Directorate of Professional Standards was being kept informed of these investigations and that officers had also begun examining cases.

“We have agreed a joint approach with the Gambling Commission, which is the authority responsible for investigating the majority of these allegations,” said Detective Superintendent Katherine Goodwin.

“However, there will be a small number of cases where a more comprehensive criminal investigation by the police is required,” she added.

A turmoil around the issue is overshadowing the final stages of the election campaign as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak struggles to close his Conservative Party’s huge poll deficit with the opposition Labour Party ahead of the July 4 vote.

Sunak said he was “incredibly angry” about allegations that at least two Tory candidates had placed bets on the timing of the election based on private information and withdrew his support for those candidates.

Although political betting is legal in the UK, the use of insider knowledge to make such bets is prohibited by law.

Meanwhile, Labour has also withdrawn support for a candidate after it emerged that he was being investigated by the Gambling Commission for betting on the outcome of the election campaign in his own constituency.

The Met summarised the approach of the joint investigation as follows: Most of the cases involve alleged breaches of the Gambling Act, which are being investigated by the Commission.

However, police added that their special crime unit would also investigate a “smaller” number of bets “that have certain characteristics that could indicate additional crimes, such as abuse of office.”

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