CASH-STARVED CONSERVATIVES SEEK LIFELINE, BIG DONORS PULL THE PLUG, ILLEGAL BETTING CLAIMS ROCK ELECTION DAY
By SHAMLAL PURI in London
Senior Editor – UK and Associate Publisher
Next week, the UK will elect a new government, and voters hope a new dawn in the troubled politics of the British Isles will herald a new era on July 5.
If polls are to be believed, an era of 14 years of Conservative governments is about to end.
But these are troubled times in British politics.
Forget the happiness Britons are looking forward to; the elections have turned into a fiasco, a circus in which some politicians have been caught with their fingers in the till.
Confusion, chaos, crisis, conspiracies, questions, and crazy allegations against the conduct of both Conservatives, also called Tories, and the opposition Labour continued to create political tremors as the United Kingdom clocked run-up of the final days of the polls on July 4.
To add to the woes of the Conservatives, major donors have been pulling the plug on the million Pounds donations to the Party.
Aware that Rishi Sunak was heading for a disastrous loss in the polls, a group of anonymous Tory Party donors who had given over £5 million to the Party decided not to make any further payments,
Individual donors giving anything up to £15,000 have also switched sides from the Tories to give to other parties.
These funds are a lifeline to the Tory Party’s functioning, particularly during the General Election.
The past few days have been tumultuous for the Conservative Government of Rishi Sunak, which was rocked by allegations that several of its members and officials were caught placing bets on the July 4 General Election date.
The public will take a dim view of Gamblegate, which may cost the Tories valuable votes.
Not just the Conservatives but also a member of the Labour Party has also been unmasked in this gambling scandal, leading to police investigations.
What is election betting?
Those close to the political parties’ place bets – using insider information to gain a higher advantage to win a bet is seen as potentially illegal.
The authoritative and respected Guardian newspaper exposed the extraordinary gambling scandal in the Conservative Party recently that Craig Williams, the closest parliamentary aide of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, was under investigation by the Gambling Commission for allegedly betting on a July election three days before one was called.
Mr Craig Williams, who has been dropped as a Conservative Party candidate, has since vowed to clear his name.
A total of 15 people, mainly Tories, six police officers and one Labour candidate have since been investigated by the Gambling Commission for betting.
Police have announced that it plans to widen its investigation, and there is a high possibility that more politicians and officials will be named.
Both Parties’ campaigners say that the scandal is seriously damaging to the Government because it is illegal to abuse their positions to gain advantage of insider information.
They also say that an abuse of rules that the Government sets give the impression there is one set of rules for the public and another for politicians. Morally, it exposes the greed of politicians and top officials.
Britons have not forgotten the infamous Partygate scandal, which engulfed the leadership of former Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the events that led to the collapse of his Government, bringing in the disastrous Liz Truss’ leadership for 46 days, the consequences of which the Tories are still licking their economic wounds.
On Wednesday night, Rishi Sunak and his Labour Party opponent Sir Keir Starmer clashed in a bitter war of words in the last live leadership debate chaired by BBC’s top-notch presenter Mishal Husain in Nottingham and in which the questions of betting and aftershocks of the elusive Rwanda Asylum policy were raised.
In their fiery exchanges, both the leaders clashed with Sunak clinging to his flagship project – immigration.
The Prime Minister urged voters not to surrender Britain’s borders to Labour. He challenged Sir Keir several times to explain what he would do with 90,000 asylum seekers in the UK.
The spikey debate on migrant boats held the attention of many people in the invited audience and BBC TV viewers nationwide.
People smugglers charge up to £8,000 per person to carry them in their dinghies across the English Channel to Britain.
Some of the human traffickers arrested in the UK are millionaires from this illicit business.
The Prime Minister, in an unrestrained conversation, asked Sir Keir up front if he was planning to make a deal with the Taliban to send back asylum seekers rejected from the UK.
Responding to a question from BBC’s invited audience member, Sir Keir said his Government would smash human trafficking gangs profiting from people on the risky journey from Europe across the English Channel.
He reiterated his pledge to tear up the Conservative Government’s plan to deport failed asylum seekers to Rwanda if Labour wins the general election.
Sir Keir said his Government would establish new programmes to process arrivals more quickly and develop return deals.
Sunak hit back, saying, “The migrants are coming from Iran, Syria and Afghanistan,” asking, “Will you sit down with the Ayatollahs? Are you going to go and do deals with the Taliban? It’s completely non-sensical – you are taking people for fools.”
Sir Keir said that since Sunak became Prime Minister, more than 50,000 people have arrived in the UK by boat across the English Channel.
According to official Government figures, more than 13,000 arrived only this year.
Sunak taunted that a Labour government would allow free movement by the back door, which Sir Keir flatly denied.
He confirmed that his Government would not return to the European Union, adding, “We’re not rejoining the single market or customs union, and we’re not accepting freedom of movement.”
He pushed the button further, “I’m not a defeatist like the Prime Minister.”
“I know we can get a better deal than the botched deal we’ve got, and I’m going to go out and fight for it.”
But Sunak did not look convinced, refusing to accept defeat on this issue, which disproportionately consumed his time and attention.
The Westminster Gamblegate saga continued in the debate about the political bets placed on the timing of the election and was bound to ruffle feathers in the Conservative Government.
Sir Keir went for the jugular, accusing the Prime Minister of being “bullied” by fellow Conservatives into acting over the betting scandal.
Audience members asked how the leaders would restore trust in politics with the public “dismayed by the lack of integrity and honesty” amid serious allegations of illegal betting by several Tories, election officials and Police members.
Sir Keir pointed the finger at the Prime Minister, laying the blame at Downing Street’s door.
The Tories have withdrawn support from two candidates under investigation for allegedly betting on the general election date.
At the same time, one Labour MP’s candidature was also suspended over claims that he awkwardly bet on losing in his constituency.
Sir Keir linked Gamblegate to a previous scandal, Partygate, during the Boris Johnson Government when Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer at the time, living at 11 Downing Street, was fined for breaking lockdown rules during the Covid-19 pandemic by attending a drinks party hosted by the then Prime Minister.
Sir Keir said, “What I did when one of my team members was alleged to have been involved and investigated by the Gambling Commission was that they were suspended within minutes because I knew it made it important to be swift.
“The Prime Minister delayed and delayed and delayed until eventually, he was bullied into taking action.”
Sunak responded: “It was important to me that given the seriousness and the sensitivity of the matters at hand, they were dealt with properly, and that’s what I’ve done.”
The Prime Minister said he was “frustrated” and “furious” about the affair.
Both leaders were in good form and managed to hold the fort, though Sunak looked uneasy at times, answering questions from the audience, and struggling to keep his composure.
However, the audience and those who watched the debate gave him a high of 44% for how he handled the final debate.
After the debate, Sir Keir cornered the remaining 56% of the public vote, delivering verbal punches to the Conservatives where it mattered the most.
But some viewers believed that although he was doing well, Sir Keir was cornered in some places when Sunak came out with tactical attacks on the Labour.
Sunak hit back at the Labour leader by launching an attack on his tax plans, saying Sir Keir “is not being honest with everyone about his plans to raise their taxes”.
Money is part of the fighting factor when it comes to general elections.
Both leaders have been hiding behind denials about the increase in taxes.
Paul Johnson, Director of the reputed International Fiscal Studies (IFS), is convinced there is a conspiracy of silence between Sir Keir and Rishi Sunak on taxes.
Analysing the General Election manifestos of the two parties closely, he said, “Debt is at its highest level in more than 60 years. Taxes are at near enough the highest ever level seen in the UK. They have risen more over this parliament than over any other since the Second World War. Spending has also risen: the fourth largest increase per year in public spending as a share of national income and the biggest under a Conservative government. Yet public services are visibly struggling.
“Despite these high tax levels, spending on many public services will likely need to be cut over the next five years if government debt is not to ratchet ever upwards or unless taxes are increased further.
“How can that be? A £50 billion a year increase in debt interest spending relative to forecasts and a growing welfare budget bear much of the responsibility. Then we have rising health spending, a defence budget which, for the first time in decades, will likely grow rather than shrink, and the reality of demographic change and the need to transition to net zero. Add in low growth and the after-effects of the pandemic and energy price crisis and you have a toxic mix indeed when it comes to the public finances.
“These raw facts are largely ignored by the two main parties in their manifestos.
“That huge decisions over the size and shape of the state will needto be taken, that those decisions will, in all likelihood, mean either higher taxes or worse, public services, you would not guess from reading their prospectuses or listening to their promises.
“They have singularly failed even to acknowledge some of the most critical issues and choices to have faced us for a very long time. As the population ages, these choices will become harder, not easier. We cannot wish them away.
“Low growth, high debt, and high-interest payments mean we need to do something quite rare just to stop Debt spiralling ever upwards: we need to run primary surpluses. That means the Government collecting more in tax and other revenues than it spends on everything apart from debt interest. Not
necessarily a recipe for a happy electorate.
“A fiscal target which implies Debt falling in five years’ time, as both the Conservatives and Labour have committed to, is looser than any debt target we have had since 2008. Yet it will constrain. Taking it seriously – and this is one thing both manifestos do appear to take seriously – will mean painful choices. None of which are faced up to,” Mr Johnson said.
“Current plans are for big real-terms cuts to investment spending – of £18 billion a year by 2030. While the March Budget assumes overall day-to-day spending will rise by 1% a year above inflation, plausible settlements for the NHS, childcare, and defence will likely leave other services facing cuts of somewhere between £10 and £20 billion a year.”
The “conspiracy of silence” about all of this has been maintained. Regardless of who takes office following the general election, they will – unless they get lucky – soon face a stark choice. Raise taxes by more than they have told us in their manifesto. Or implement cuts to some areas of spending. Or borrow more and be content for Debt to rise for longer. That is the trilemma. What will they choose? The manifestos have left us guessing.
“Their proposals on tax, benefits and public service spending would be barely enough to detain us in analysing a modest one-year fiscal event. They certainly don’t answer the big
questions facing us over a five-year parliament.”
All these talks of mouth-watering promises of tax cuts are merely pulling the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting British public.
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Shamlal Puri