Election news – live: Tories suspend two candidates over betting scandal

The Conservative party has announced it has withdrawn support from the two candidates investigated by the Gambling Commission.

A party spokesperson said: “As a result of ongoing internal enquiries, we have concluded that we can no longer support Craig Williams or Laura Saunders as parliamentary candidates at the forthcoming general election.

“We have checked with the Gambling Commission that this decision does not compromise the investigation that they are conducting, which is rightly independent and ongoing.”

It comes as Rishi Sunak faced growing pressure to suspend the Tories accused of placing a bet on the general election from within the party.

The prime minister previously ruled out suspending the candidates until the independent body had concluded the investigation and found guilty.

While constituents in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr wait for a Conservative candidate to replace Craig Williams, here are the other party members standing:

• Green, Jeremy Brignell-Thorp
• Reform UK, Oliver Lewis
• Liberal Democrat, Glyn Preston
• Plaid Cymru, Elwyn Vaughan
• Labour, Steve Witherden

Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed Tory claims that migrants are “queuing up in Calais” to wait for a Labour government to be elected.

Instead, he claimed they were rather getting in boats and coming over to the UK already.

He said: “They’re not queuing up in Calais, they’re getting in boats and coming over.

“We’ve had record numbers this year. So, I mean, the Prime Minister really needs to answer for that. Under his watch, we have had record numbers, record numbers coming by boat, we’ve got record numbers of migrants coming to work in this country.

“So that’s the situation – we intend to stop that by taking down the gangs that are running this bar trade in the first place. And if the Government had done that, we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all.”

Asked what his numerical target is for reducing net migration, the Labour leader refused to provide a figure: “We want to bring it down substantially. I’m not going to put an arbitrary number on it.”

Reacting to the Conservative party’s decision to withdraw support for its candidates Craig Williams and Laura Saunders, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “This should have happened immediately when these scandalous revelations emerged, but instead Rishi Sunak has dithered and delayed.

“Sunak must confirm immediately that these candidates will not have the Conservative whip if elected.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has promised to stop the online sale of zombie kinves “straight away”.

He told reporters: “The Government has announced 16 times that they’re going to ban the online sale of zombie knives. We as the opposition said we support this, bring the legislation, it will go through, they haven’t done it. Knife crime now is up 81% since 2015.”

He added : “It’s a problem that we all have responsibilities for so legislation on knives is a Government issue and the Government has failed on this issue. We will not fail on this issue. There are other measures, one of the families here their son was murdered by a knife that was sent through the post by a shop, ordered online in ordinary packaging and picked up by a 15-year-old who didn’t need to show any identification.

“It’s not rocket science. I will stop that straight away and I think it’s so outrageous that that can even happen.”

With Laura Saunders disowned from the Conservative party, constituents in Bristol North West are yet to have a Tory candidate to replace her.

Here’s a list of the rest of contenders:

• Liberal Democrat, Caroline Gooch
• Labour, Darren Jones
• Reform UK, Scarlett O’Connor
• Green, Mary Page
• Social Democratic Party, Ben Smith

The Tory former Brexit minister has questioned why the party has delayed the decision to drop Laura Saunders and Craig Williams.

The Conservative peer tweeted: “We get there in the end. But why did it take so long to come to a decision that seemed so necessary right from the start?”

Sir Keir Starmer has reacted to the news about Craig Williams and Laura Saunders being dropped as Tory candidates.

The Labour leader has criticised the move for not coming sooner. He told reporters: “Why didn’t he [Rishi Sunak] do that last week?”

Sir Keir previously called Rishi Sunak to suspend the people involved in the scandal and branded the prime minister “too weak” for leadership.

Ms Saunders, the Tory candidate for Bristol North West, is also under investigation by the Gambling Commission (GC) over claims she may have had inside knowledge about the prime minister’s decision to call a snap poll for 4 July.

Ms Saunders has worked for the party since 2015 and was married to Tony Lee, who works as the Conservative Party’s director of campaigns. Mr Lee has since taken a leave of absence after it came to light he was the third person being probed by the GC.

According to the BBC, which first named Ms Saunders as the candidate under investigation, she worked most recently at the party’s international division at Conservative Campaign Headquarters, which works with other centre-right parties around the world.