Gambling Commission clears Labour candidate who bet on himself to lose seat

Labour candidate Kevin Craig disclosed that he had bet £800, at the last election, on himself losing his seat to the Conservatives at odds of 1/2.

Craig revealed that he had bet £800 on himself, with a potential £400 win waiting if he lost, on Chopper’s Political Podcast; to be released later on in the week.

The bet was flagged to the Gambling Commission by Conservative insiders, leading to them investigating bets placed around the time of the election.

The Gambling Commission then notified the Labour party, which suspended him and claimed they would return all of his donations to the party.

Despite admitting that he placed a bet on himself to lose, Craig has officially been cleared by the Gambling Commission of any wrongdoing and the commission has confirmed that “no further action will be taken”.

Craig said he had always gambled, placing as many as 200 bets a year.

The clearing follows Craig having drawn up a draft law to prevent candidates from betting on the outcomes of elections. The law - if put into practice - will be called the ‘Gambling on Elections Bill’. Due to this, he has since been readmitted to the party and his donations have not been returned to him; as initially planned.

The Commission sent Craig an email stating: "Following investigation and having considered your representations, the Commission does not consider there is sufficient evidence to meet the full code test for prosecution under section 42 of the [Gambling Act 2005] and therefore we are closing our investigation with no further action."

Craig said that he had now written to Sir Keir Starmer with a proposed draft law to ban candidates from betting on politics.

He said: "I don't want any candidate, whether they are Labour, Reform, Tory, SNP, Lib Dem ever to have their campaign killed off by a letter of accusation from the Gambling Commission that is subsequently proven to have no grounds."