Conservative candidate Craig Williams has obviously forgotten the perennial wisdom of Kenny Rogers’s hit “The Gambler”. Let us recall what the late Rogers sang: 

“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run…”

Williams clearly knows none of the above. Three days before Rishi Sunak announced the election, he put £100 on a July election at the odds of 5/1. If he had any insider knowledge this would constitute a crime. The Gambling Commission is now investigating. 

Seriously? All for £500? Williams has yet to confirm whether it was worth it or not. In a statement, he said: “I’ve been contacted by a journalist about Gambling Commission inquiries into one of my accounts and thought it best to be totally transparent. I put a flutter on the general election some weeks ago. This has resulted in some routine inquiries and I confirm I will fully cooperate with these. I don’t want to be a distraction from the campaign, I should have thought through how it looked.”

In his defence, £100 at 5/1 is certainly a flutter figure. If he did have insider knowledge, why not put the house on it? Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton gave Williams a fatherly admonishment for the “clearly very foolish decision”. 

Welsh Labour’s Stephen Kinnock, as Starmer’s team rubbed their hands and licked their lips on the day of their manifesto launch, called the allegations “utterly extraordinary”. 

Tory scandal number… Oh, it’s impossible to keep up.

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