The House Always Wins: How Tory Insiders Tried to Cash In on Democracy 

Not Just Bad Apples: The Rotten Barrel of Tory Rule

If you were seeking a perfect metaphor for the terminal decay of the last Tory government, look no further than the extraordinary spectacle of 15 people, including a former Tory MP and several senior Party officials, being charged with gambling offences over bets placed on the timing of the 2024 general election. 

This is what 14 years of Tory rule ultimately delivered: a political culture so thoroughly corrupted that those with privileged access to power saw nothing wrong with using confidential information about something as fundamental as an election date to line their own pockets. 

Craig Williams – Rishi Sunak’s own parliamentary private secretary, no less – is among those charged by the Gambling Commission for alleged cheating under the Gambling Act. The list reads like a Who’s Who of Conservative Party operations: Russell George, a Welsh Conservative parliamentarian; Laura Saunders, the Party’s Bristol North West candidate; Tony Lee, the Conservatives’ campaigns director; and Nick Mason, the Tories’ chief data officer at the time. 

The breathtaking arrogance is almost impressive. Just days before Sunak performed his desperate, drowning-rat dash to the podium to announce the July election date, these insiders allegedly placed their calculated bets. They must have believed themselves utterly untouchable, operating in a political environment where rules were mere inconveniences for the common folk while they, the privileged few, helped themselves to the spoils of insider knowledge with impunity.

What makes this scandal particularly damning is that it wasn’t some complex financial scheme requiring sophisticated understanding of regulatory loopholes. It was staggeringly basic: know something the public doesn’t, place a bet, collect winnings. The naked simplicity of the grift speaks volumes about how normalized ethical shortcuts had become. 

It speaks volumes about the final days of the Conservative government. By May 2024, their electoral fortunes were so obviously sinking that some insiders apparently decided they might as well profit from the coming demise. “Après nous, le déluge” – after us, the flood – might as well have been their unofficial motto. The party that once styled itself as the champion of responsibility and traditional values had devolved into a vehicle for personal advantage.

These charges arrive at a particularly awkward moment for current Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who has attempted to position herself as a clean break from the Party’s recent past. Pundits have rightly demanded clarity on whether those found guilty would remain welcome in the Conservative fold. The answer should be obvious, but recent history suggests nothing can be taken for granted. 

Perhaps the most telling detail is the Metropolitan Police’s involvement. While the Gambling Commission is pursuing these charges, the Met conducted its own parallel investigation into claims that as many as seven of its officers may have sought to profit from advance knowledge of the election date. One former officer, Jeremy Hunt, is among those charged. When both politicians and police are implicated in the same ethical breach, something has gone profoundly wrong with our institutions. 

The Conservative spokesperson’s response rings particularly hollow: “These incidents took place in May last year. Our Party is now under new leadership.” As if corruption were merely a scheduling issue rather than a systemic failure of governance and culture. As if the stench of ethical bankruptcy could be washed away with a simple leadership change. 

This scandal forms part of a much larger pattern. From PPE contracts awarded to friends and donors during the pandemic to the revolving door between ministerial offices and lucrative private sector jobs, the boundary between public service and private gain became increasingly blurred under Conservative rule. 

To be fair, Labour has not emerged entirely unscathed. Kevin Craig, a Labour candidate, was suspended for betting that he would not win in his constituency – though this appears to be a case of self-defeating pessimism rather than insider trading. The Party responded by returning his £100,000 donation, a clear signal that such behaviour, regardless of motivation, is unacceptable. 

The defendants are due to appear at Westminster magistrates court in June 2025, but the political verdict is already clear. When those closest to power view democracy not as a sacred trust but as another market to be gamed, the entire system is compromised. 

The stench of corruption that polluted Westminster during those final desperate months of Tory rule won’t dissipate quickly. It seeps into the foundations of our democratic institutions, eroding public trust and feeding the cynical belief that politics is merely a mechanism for personal enrichment rather than public service. 

As these 15 individuals prepare their defences, the rest of us should reflect on what their actions reveal about the political culture that enabled them. The charges may focus narrowly on gambling offenses, but the true indictment is against a system that allowed those with power to bet against the very principles they claimed to uphold. 

Don’t you just get sick of it all…

Paul Knaggs