Labour’s Kevin Craig calls for ban on politicians betting on election results

Craig was involved in a Gambling Commission investigation after betting on himself to lose in the July general election.

UK.- The former parliamentary candidate Kevin Craig has called for a ban on politicians betting on general elections in the UK after being cleared of wrongdoing for doing precisely that. Craig, who represented Labour Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, was one of several politicians put under investigation after a spate of scandalous stories in the media about betting on the election.

He now wants a ban to protect politicians from themselves. He told The Times that he has proposed a draft bill to amend the Representation of the People Act 1983 to ban anyone involved with politics from betting on election results.

“No candidate deserves to go through what I did,” Craig said. “Regardless of whether they’re Reform, Tory, SNP or Lib Dem, I don’t want them to be totally scuppered by the launching of an investigation at a critical moment in a campaign that is impossible to deal with in the white heat of an election, even when they’re innocent.”

Craig’s case was unusual. Several political figures were suspected of using inside knowledge to place bets on the date of the July 4 general election before it had been publicly announced. But Craig placed a bet that he would lose his bid to become the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich on behalf of the Labour Party. The discovery of the bet led to Craig being suspended as the party’s candidate but his name remained on the ballot paper because it was already close too the election date to change it.

Craig apologised and said he placed the bet because he thought he had no chance of winning the seat, but it was feared that it could give the impression that he was not trying to win. Craig also said he would donate any winnings to charity. In the end, the constituency went to Conservative Party candidate Patrick Spencer.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Craig said he had now been reinstated to the Labour Party after his suspension. He wrote: “Today, I feel a tremendous sense of relief to confirm my total and utter exoneration by the Gambling Commission, as well as my full reinstatement to the Labour Party, which I have served in many ways since 1993. I want to put on record my gratitude to the people of Central Suffolk and North Ipswich and, in particular, the local Labour party. Their kindness throughout the ordeal will never be forgotten.

“We were on course for an historic result. I’ll always feel great regret that people were not able to vote for an official Labour candidate on polling day. I feel sadness at the confusion and chaos, which had such an impact on our result.”

The Gambling Commission’s investigation into the wider scandal, dubbed Gamblegate by British media, focused on several Conservative party staff as well as police officers, mainly relating to bets placed on the date of election, which the then-prime minister Rishi Sunak made public May 22. 

In August, the Metropolitan Police ruled out charges of misconduct in public office but said there was still a possibility of criminal charges resulting from the Gambling Commission’s separate investigation into whether political figures had cheated in betting by using confidential information.