Tories’ Former Campaign Chief Sentenced Over Election Betting
Anthony Lee, the Conservatives’ former director of campaigning, has been given ten months and two weeks suspended for cheating at gambling, having bet on the date of the 2024 election using information from a private meeting called by the then prime minister. He and his wife stood to win more than £23,000.
His wife, Laura Lee, received four months and two weeks suspended for a year, and Amy Hind, a former party employee then working as an NHS business support manager, six months suspended. All three admitted the offence at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, having been charged by the Gambling Commission. Sentencing them, Judge Tony Baumgartner said their conduct “risked undermining” public confidence in the Conservative Party “as an institution”, as well as trust in the democratic process and the integrity of the gambling system. The case is not over: other defendants are due to be tried next year and in 2028, and the former Conservative member of parliament Craig Williams, who was the then prime minister’s closest parliamentary aide when the election date was chosen, pleaded guilty in June and will be sentenced later. The sums involved are small against the damage; what the prosecutions establish is that the date of a general election was treated by people inside the governing party as a tradeable piece of information.