Conservative couple admit cheating at gambling over election betting charges

The Conservatives' former director of campaigning and his wife, a Tory parliamentary candidate, have admitted cheating at gambling on the date of the 2024 general election.

Anthony Lee, 49, who headed the party's campaigning effort that year, pleaded guilty to two charges of cheating at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.

Lee was responsible for deploying Tory resources for the contest, which then-prime minister Rishi Sunak called for 4 July.

His wife, Laura Saunders, 38, who appeared in court under her married name Laura Lee, admitted one charge of cheating.

She was the party's head of international, based at head office and had been chosen to run in the Bristol North West constituency.

The couple's guilty pleas follow admissions by Craig Williams, the former Tory MP for Montgomeryshire and Cardiff North who was Mr Sunak's parliamentary private secretary, and Amy Hind, the wife of Conservative deputy digital director Anthony Hind, that they too had cheated at gambling.

They were all charged after an investigation into allegations that inside information on the date of the 2024 general election had been used to place bets.

Hind, Lee, and Sanders are all now due to be sentenced at the same court next month.

Williams is due to be sentenced after trials in September next year and January 2028 of other party officials and insiders who are also accused of cheating at gambling.

(c) Sky News 2026: Conservative couple admit cheating at gambling over election betting charges