A Conservative cabinet minister who admitted placing three bets on the date of the general election is in line for a peerage as part of Rishi Sunak’s final honours list, the Observer has been told. Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary who stood down as an MP when the election was called, had been considered for inclusion in a dissolution honours list compiled in recent weeks, according to sources familiar with the process. The list is set to be published soon after Thursday’s vote. Jack said he had placed three bets on the election date – one of which was successful – as the row over election betting engulfed the campaign last week. He made clear that he had not breached any rules and was not being investigated by the Gambling Commission. The watchdog is examining betting by Westminster figures on the date of the election.
However, figures inside the party argued it would be “problematic” to press ahead with Jack’s peerage, given the anger over the betting row and its impact on the Tory campaign. Recent discussions suggest that Jack could still be in line for an honour when the list is finally published. Tory sources also warned Sunak that the dissolution honours list, traditionally published at the end of a parliament, risked provoking anger in the party if he attempted to use it to reward “arrogant” advisers and aides who have overseen an election campaign criticised as error-strewn. “It’s just quite extraordinary that, having criticised Liz Truss for giving some of her team gongs for failure, they’re going to do the exact same thing,” said one source. Despite serving just 49 days as prime minister, Truss handed honours to aides and advisers, including supportive MPs and donors. The news comes amid private complaints about Sunak’s decision to call an early election, which appeared to take many of the Conservative party’s own officials by surprise. At the time it was called, almost 200 candidates were yet to be appointed – the most telling sign of how much work has been needed to ready the party for the snap poll. One of the central figures in the betting row is also understood to have been removed from the forthcoming honours list.
The scandal began when the Guardian revealed that Craig Williams, Sunak’s parliamentary aide, was under investigation by the commission for placing a £100 bet that the election would be in July, three days before it was announced. Williams is said to have been considered for a knighthoodbefore the row emerged, but has since been removed from the deliberations. He has described the wager as “a huge error of judgment” and is one of two Tory candidates to have had support withdrawn by the party while the commission investigates. Last week, Jack denied BBC reports that he had won £2,100 on an election bet, suggesting he had been joking about the idea. He later released a statement saying he had “not breached any gambling rules”. The cabinet minister said in March he had placed two bets of £5 each for an election to be held in May and June respectively. He placed a £20 bet in April at odds of 5 to 1 that an election would be held between July and September. “I had no knowledge of the date of the election until the day it was called,” he said. “As I have said previously, I placed no bets in May and am not under investigation by the Gambling Commission.”