Rishi Sunak's election campaign has been thrown into chaos after his Head of Campaigning was included in a Gambling Commission investigation into bets placed on the timing of the vote.

According to reports, both Tony Lee and his wife, Tory candidate Laura Saunders are being probed by the watchdog. 

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News of the investigation - first reported by the BBC - comes a day after one of the Prime Minister's close protection officers was also arrested over alleged bets on the timing of the election.

Last week, it emerged that Craig Williams, who served as Mr Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary and is the Conservative candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, placed a £100 bet on a July polling date just three days before the Prime Minister announced that the vote would be on July 4.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said the Tory election campaign is “collapsing before our very eyes”.

He added: “It’s gone from bad, to worse, to catastrophic – and in just two weeks’ time the Tories will deeply deserve the democratic drubbing that they are about to get.

“The Tories are finished and Sir Keir Starmer is set to swan straight into Downing Street. In this election, that choice is already made, so the real choice that now matters for Scotland is whether we will have MPs who’ll stand up for our priorities and values.

“With the Tories already toast, the real choice at this election is whether we give Sir Keir Starmer a free pass to impose more public service cuts, or whether we have a strong Scottish voice there to stop him.”

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Labour’s campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden has written to the Prime Minister calling for the candidates’ suspension and questioning “how wide this scandal goes”.

He said that given the police officer had been removed from their duties, “surely you can understand that – yet again – this looks as though there is one rule for members of the Tory party, and another rule for everyone else”.

“If you can see how wrong that is, will you now at the very least remove your support for Mr Williams and Ms Saunders as Conservative election candidates?

“The other major question to be addressed is how wide this scandal goes.

“If some of your most senior colleagues felt they had carte blanche to misuse the inside information they had on the election in order to make a profit, we must ask how many others had advance access to the same information, and placed bets either by themselves, or through their friends and family?”

In Holyrood, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said due process should be allowed to take course. 

Mr Ross said: “(The investigation has) been set up to look at these allegations, and if anyone is guilty of using (information) that they were privy to, to place bets, to financially benefit from that, it is completely unacceptable, it is completely wrong and they should no longer have the support.

“But there is an independent process and I think it’s right that due process is allowed to continue.”

He added that he does not “in any way condone” what has happened, if the Gambling Commission identifies wrongdoing.

A Conservative spokesman said: “We have been contacted by the Gambling Commission about a small number of individuals.

“As the Gambling Commission is an independent body, it wouldn’t be proper to comment further, until any process is concluded.”

The Gambling Commission said: “Currently the commission is investigating the possibility of offences concerning the date of the election.

“This is an ongoing investigation, and the commission cannot provide any further details at this time.

“We are not confirming or denying the identity of any individuals involved in this investigation.”