Former Sunak aide admits betting on 2024 election date

Craig Williams pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on 29 June 2026 to cheating at gambling over a bet on the date of the 2024 general election. Williams, who served as parliamentary private secretary to then-prime minister Rishi Sunak and represented Montgomeryshire before the 2024 election, admitted placing a £100 wager tied to the timing of the contest.

The case has sharpened scrutiny of how political access can intersect with betting markets. Reporting on the investigation said Williams placed the bet three days before Sunak announced the general election publicly on 22 May 2024, with the vote then held on 4 July 2024. The Gambling Commission opened its investigation in June 2024 after Williams admitted the wager.

Williams is one of 15 people charged in the commission’s wider election-betting probe. The regulator said the case involved suspected cheating related to bets on the timing of the election under section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005, focusing on people suspected of using confidential information, specifically advance knowledge of the proposed election date, to gain an unfair advantage in betting markets.

The scandal became a political embarrassment for the Conservative Party during the 2024 campaign and fed a broader debate about trust, standards and the safeguards around privileged political information. Williams’s guilty plea now places the focus on the mechanics of the betting itself, not just the campaign fallout: who knew what, when they knew it, and how quickly insider knowledge can become a financial advantage when election timing is not yet public.

Southwark Crown Court’s hearing added another milestone to a case that was expected to take years because of the number of defendants. It also leaves the Gambling Commission’s wider probe as one of the clearest examples of how a single election date can become the subject of criminal scrutiny when political access meets a regulated gambling market.