Five more police officers are alleged to have placed bets on the timing of the general election, the Metropolitan Police has said.
The force said it had been passed information about the officers by the Gambling Commission after Rishi Sunak’s close protection officer was arrested last week over alleged bets on a July election.
The Conservatives’ election campaign has been plunged into crisis over the issue, with two Tory candidates and two party officials currently being investigated by the watchdog.
Police aid, abet, and participate in corruption?? Say it ain’t so!
/s just in case
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Conservatives’ election campaign has been plunged into crisis over the issue, with two Tory candidates and two party officials currently being investigated by the watchdog.
"The officer - a police constable from the Royalty and Specialist Protection Command - is on restricted duties.
"We have, however, been passed information from the Gambling Commission alleging that five further officers have placed bets related to the timing of the election.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Conservative Party withdrew its support for the two candidates being investigated - Craig Williams and Laura Saunders.
They will still appear on ballot papers as Tory candidates, because it is too late to change them ahead of next Thursday’s vote, but they will have no support for the rest of the campaign from the party and cannot call themselves Conservatives.
The move came after Mr Sunak faced nearly two weeks of pressure to suspend the pair but had previously said he was waiting to see what the commission’s investigation came up with.
The original article contains 492 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
