Shipley Conservative Sir Philip Davies 'bet £8,000 he would lose his seat'
Shipley Conservative Sir Philip Davies 'bet £8,000 he would lose his seat'
Shipley candidate Sir Philip Davies says it is "nobody's business" whether he placed the bet.
Might not be illegal but is certainly very telling about how seriously he takes being an MP.
Just hedging his chances, if he doesn't win he wins his £8k bet, if he wins then his nose is in the trough at Westminster. It's win/win for him (and lose/lose for the public)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A senior Conservative candidate reportedly placed an £8,000 bet on losing his seat at the general election.Sir Philip Davies neither confirmed nor denied the wager, first reported by the Sun,, external but rejected suggestions he had done "anything illegal".Sir Philip, who has been the Tory MP for Shipley since 2005, told the newspaper he expected to lose the seat on 4 July.
Sir Philip said it was "nobody's business" whether he placed the bet or not.He said: "What's it got to do with you whether I did or didn't.
"He added: “And if anyone’s alleging I’ve done anything illegal, they’re very welcome to allege it, but I’m afraid I haven’t.”When contacted by the BBC, Sir Philip said he stood by his comments to the newspaper but did not offer any further comment.The Conservative party has also been approached by the BBC.
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The report about Sir Philip came after several parliamentary candidates were accused of placing bets surrounding the date or outcome of the election.Earlier this week, the Conservative party withdrew support from Craig Williams, the candidate in Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, and Laura Saunders, the candidate in Bristol North West, who are both being investigated by the Gambling Commission.Russell George, a Conservative politician in the Welsh Parliament, is also facing inquiries by the regulator and has "stepped back" from his frontbench role.Meanwhile, Labour suspended Kevin Craig as its candidate for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich after learning he had placed a bet on losing his bid to become an MP.Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, external, X (formerly Twitter), external and Instagram, external.
Independent - NagbeaReform UK - Simon DandyConservative - Philip DaviesLabour - Anna DixonThe Yorkshire Party - Will GrantWorkers Party of Britain - Waqas KhanChristian Peoples Alliance - Darryl Morton-WrightLiberal Democrat - Graham ReedSocial Democratic Party - Paul ShkurkaGreen - Kevin Warnes
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See, I don't care about this at all. There's no suggestion he was going to deliberately throw the election. He didn't have any inside information. He's allowed to place bets!
It seems to me a given that you shouldn't be able to place bets on outcomes you can directly influence. This is not so different from e.g. a boxer betting on himself to lose.