Rishi Sunak has insisted that anyone in the Conservative Party who is found to have broken betting laws should be “booted out” and “face the full consequences of the law”.
During a live Q&A with The Sun readers, hosted by Harry Cole on Monday night, the Prime Minister was grilled on his handling of the election date betting scandal that has rocked the Tory party’s election campaign while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was asked how he could be trusted after he was “happy to lie to us” about Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Sunak reiterated that the party was conducting an internal investigation alongside the Gambling Commission probe.
The Prime Minister said: “I’m incredibly angry about this and the right thing to do...is to get to the bottom of what happened, to investigate things thoroughly.
“Now we have to do that separately to the Gambling Commission, who don’t report to me. I don’t have the details of their investigation. We have to do that sensitively and carefully so that we don’t compromise the integrity of a police and other investigations.
“But let me be clear, if we come across findings or information that warrants it, we will not hesitate to act, I have been crystal clear that I will hold people to account, whoever they are.”
Mr Sunak added that anyone who has broken rules should be “booted out of the Conservative Party” and “should face the full consequences of the law”.
But he said it is “proper” to wait for the outcome of multiple investigations before taking action.
The Gambling Commission, the police and the Conservative Party are all understood to be looking into claims that several figures with links to the Tories or Number 10 placed bets on the date of the General Election shortly before Mr Sunak announced his plans last month.
Those include Mr Sunak’s former parliamentary aide Craig Williams, who has already admitted to having “a flutter” on the election date in what he told the BBC was a “huge error of judgment”.
The party’s chief data officer, Nick Mason, and campaigning director, Tony Lee, have both taken leaves of absence after being implicated in the scandal, while Mr Lee’s wife, Tory candidate Laura Saunders, is also under investigation by the Gambling Commission.
Mr Sunak was also grilled on immigration, housing and NHS wait times during the Q&A.
He claimed migrants are “queuing up in Calais” waiting for a Labour government so they can come to the UK.
He also defended his record on cutting down net migration, claiming that the number of visas accepted by the Home Office this year had dropped by 30 per cent.
Mr Sunak added: “If you look at the forecast, independent forecasts, not mine, we’re forecast to halve net migration in 12 months because of the measures that I’ve already taken, by the way the Labour Party opposed all of those, and I want to go further.”
To wrap up, an animated Mr Sunak said: “I’m not going to pretend we got everything right. I know the last few years have been particualry frustrating.
“But I’m not going to sit here and say the last 14 years hasn’t made the country a better place.”
He added: “If you want taxes cut... and action on legal migration and stopping the boats... I’m the only person who is going to deliver that for you.”
Meanwhile an audience member said that when Sir Keir backed Mr Corbyn in 2019 and now justified it by saying he did not believe the then-Labour leader would win that election, “that means you’re happy to lie to us – how do we know you’re not lying now?”
Sir Keir listed his track record of transforming the Northern Ireland police service and the Crown Prosecution Service in response.
“What I’m asking for now is the opportunity to pick the country up, which is as broken as my party was in 2019, and change it for the better,” the Labour leader said.
Sir Keir also claimed that the backlog of asylum claims would double by the end of the year to 100,000 if the Conservatives are re-elected.
“There are 50,000 people not being processed, if we carry on with Rishi Sunak as prime minister it will get to 100k by the end of the year,” the Labour leader said.
Sir Keir vowed to crack down on people smuggling gangs with a border security command with counter terrorism powers.
“I know how it’s done and I think it can be done again,” he said.
He claimed the number of people being deported from the UK has dropped by 44 per cent under the current Government.
He said if Labour came into power, he would put staff back in the Home Office returns unit and return people “back to countries where they came from”.
He added that Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan was an “expensive gimmick”.
