Election latest: Another Tory under investigation over election bets - as Labour to return £100,000 in donations (2024)

Sophy Ridgeasks about a report into Plaid Cymru, published before Rhun ap Iorwerth became leader, which found "a culture of harassment, bullying, and misogyny".

Has he cleaned up the party's act?

"It was a difficult time for us," Mr Iorwerth admits. "We commissioned this report on ourselves.

"And, you know, there's a suggestion that other political parties may well benefit from doing the same themselves.

"But this was our moment."

Mr Iorwerth adds that Plaid Cymru has been "through a wake-up" and have "ticked off" all 82 recommendations the report made.

Russell George, a Conservative member of the Senedd, has stepped back from the Welsh shadow cabinet as he faces an investigation by the gambling watchdog over alleged bets on the timing of the general election.

Mr George represents Montgomeryshire in the Welsh parliament - the same area that Craig Williams, the Tory candidate who has had party support withdrawn as he faces similar allegations, represented at Westminster.

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said: "Russell George has informed me that he has received a letter from the Gambling Commission regarding bets on the timing of the general election.

"Russell George has stepped back from the Welsh Conservative shadow cabinet while these investigations are ongoing.

"All other members of the Welsh Conservative Group have confirmed that they have not placed any bets.

"I will not issue further comment on this ongoing process, recognising the Gambling Commission's instruction for confidentiality to protect the integrity of the process."

JoiningSophy Ridgetonight for the latest in her Leaders Interviews series is Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru.

She begins with her usual first question: Why should people vote for Plaid Cymru?

Mr Iorwerth says the reason to vote for his pro-independence party is "clearer than usual".

He adds: "We really need to make sure that the MPs we have really do speak up for Wales, which are guaranteed in Plaid Cymru.

"But also we kind of know where this is going to end don't we? In terms of Downing Street.

"Sir Keir Starmer will be the prime minister two weeks from now. We need to be holding him and his government to account for the people of Wales."

But Sophy points out that much of Plaid Cymru's manifesto is similar to that of Scottish Labour.

Mr Iorwerth disagrees, pointing to his party's desire to scrap the two-child benefit cap and reassess the country's relationship with the EU.

"We want to make sure that there's investment in Wales through the £4bn owed to us from the HS2 rail project in England, which Labour is flatly ignoring," he adds.

By Tom Cheshire, online campaign correspondent

There are two ways to reach voters online: pay for your adverts to end up in front of them - or produce content yourself that gets attention.

Throughout the election, we've been tracking the first of those. Labour have been the big digital spenders, with the Conservatives second, and then everyone else a very distant third.

But throwing money at it doesn't necessarily fix the attention problem.

And some of those spending the least are getting the most interactions, with the Reform UK party doing by far the best.

Reform is also seeing the most page growth, with 32,000 new followers.

The Conservative Party by comparison has seen much slower growth, just 0.08%.

That's only 596 more people clicking follow over the course of the election, speaking to a spluttering campaign.

Returning to the gambling scandal, former Tory MP Tim Loughton tellsSophy Ridgeanyone involved "should have the book thrown at them, frankly just for them being pretty dumb".

"It just looks really, really stupid," he says.

He explains that suspending anyone is effectively a death sentence for potentially innocent candidates standing in elections, and that Rishi Sunak waiting for an investigation before doing so wasn't a bad idea.

"It was right to look at it properly," he adds - but reiterates that it doesn't look good for anyone involved.

Tory peer Baroness Nicky Morgan is asked bySophy Ridgeif the campaigning is all but pointless - with the only Conservative aim to avoid Labour winning a so-called "supermajority".

"In my book, you never give up until 10pm on polling night," she says, noting occasions where final votes on election night have made the difference.

"I don't think the British public would want a government to have a huge majority," she adds.

"I don't think it's good for democracy, for holding a government to account."

She concedes that after 14 years it "was always going to be a battle" to convince the public for a further five.

On the recent gambling scandal, she says: "The more you're talking about things like betting, the less you're talking about the issues that people really want to hear about."

Four men have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass at the prime minister's constituency home in Kirby Sigston, North Yorkshire Police has said.

A statement said: "We have arrested four people in the grounds of the prime minister's constituency home this afternoon.

"Our officers were with the four men within one minute of them entering the grounds.

"They were detained at around 12.40pm before being escorted off the property and arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

"The men aged 52 from London, 43 from Bolton, 21 from Manchester, and 20 from Chichester, remain in police custody for questioning and enquiries are ongoing."

Baroness Nicky Morgan, the former Tory education secretary, has said the time spent talking about the betting scandal is "frustrating" in the midst of a general election campaign.

The Conservatives today withdrew support for two candidates over informed betting on the date of the election, while Labour suspended a candidate for betting against himself.

Baroness Morgan told Sophy Ridge: "It's clearly been a very difficult couple of weeks, and I'm on record of having said I wished the prime minister had taken a decision sooner.

"I think the right decision has been taken today and I understand that Conservative HQ checked with the Gambling Commission before announcing to make sure that their action wasn't going to prejudice any investigations.

"Unfortunately these kinds of stories, because they are relatively simple to understand… people of course will internalise this and think 'Hang on a second, is this what I want to vote for?'.

"This is an election campaign, there are serious issues facing the country and facing the world.

"The time spent talking about these issues is frustrating for those, including the prime minister, who want to talk about the bigger issues."

Our chief political correspondentJon Craigis here to break down the day's betting scandal events.

He begins with the Tories.

"For days and days and days both [Rishi Sunak] and senior ministers like James Cleverly have been saying, 'oh, we can't talk about it' - well that hasn't worked," he says.

"Craig Williams, he's not going to go away quietly," he adds, noting the candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr's "defiant" message on X, which you can watch here.

He also notes that postal votes have already been going in in the midst of this scandal - meaning slow Tory action could already be directly impacting the polls

Jon next turns to Labour.

A reminder that in the last few hours, a Labour candidate has been suspended by the party after betting against himself - with the Gambling Commission launching an investigation into him.

"So Labour have [also been] dragged into this, it's not good is it?" he asks.

"If a footballer or a cricketer did this, the authorities would probably throw the book at them.

"All this betting, it's exposed quite a sleazy side of politics."

Campaigns can change things.

When Rishi Sunak decided to call an early election when he was 20 points behind in the polls, I'm sure that's the argument he and those around him were making.

And usually, as an election approaches, the polls narrow in favour of the governing party.

But that is not the overall narrative of this campaign.

There are two big clues we have about the way a campaign is going.

The first is the polls, the second is the seats each party is visiting.

Rishi Sunak was in true blue Chelsea yesterday, a Tory seat with a majority topping 10,000.

He's visited eight seats with Conservative majorities of over 20,000, and The Guardian reports the party has been re-routing resources to defend three seats held by ministers with similarly huge advantages.

As for Labour, analysis from the Financial Times says they're directing activists away from Lib Dem target seats.

That implies both parties are focusing on unseating Conservatives rather than taking votes off each other.

This is the business end of the campaign - and organisation matters.