Former Tory Campaign Chief Pleads Guilty Over Election Bet
Anthony Lee, the Conservative Party's former director of campaigning, and his wife Laura Lee (formerly Saunders) have pleaded guilty to cheating at gambling over bets placed on the timing of the 2024 UK general election, which was a popular market on betting sites.
The Gambling Commission confirmed the offences and Anthony Lee pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on September 10 to two offences of cheating, contrary to sections 42(1)(a) and 42(1)(b) of the Gambling Act 2005.
Laura Lee, who was the Conservative candidate for Bristol North West in 2024, pleaded guilty to one offence under section 42(1)(a).
Confidential Information Passed On
As the party's director of campaigning, Anthony Lee was party to sensitive discussions at Conservative Campaign Headquarters about when then-prime minister Rishi Sunak planned to call the general election, held on July 4, 2024 but not publicly announced until May 22 that year.
Rather than keeping the information confidential, the Gambling Commission said, Lee used it to place bets and passed it to his wife, who then placed her own bets on the election date.
Casino Games Hub
Part of a wider Operation Scott investigation
The Lees join Amy Hind and former Conservative MP Craig Williams, Sunak's former parliamentary aide, who pleaded guilty in June to the same offence after betting up to £250 on the election date, in what he later called "a huge error of judgment."
Lee, Lee and Hind are due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on October 23, with Williams sentenced separately.
The Gambling Commission said trials for 10 other defendants in the wider investigation are scheduled for September 2027 and January 2028.
