Betting council bye-bye after Benton blunder
Scott Benton transformed from a nobody into a household name this week – well, not a household name, but certainly a name in the news – after The Times’s successful undercover sting saw him lose the Tory Party whip for boasting on camera that he could break Commons lobbying rules for £2-4 thousand a week.
Since the revelations, greater scrutiny is being put on the betting industry’s tentacles in Westminster. Every year MPs enjoy thousands in freebies and tickets to top events like the Brits and horse racing courtesy of the industry – not least the Betting and Gaming Council.
According to Sky News’ Westminster Files database, the Betting and Gaming Council has donated a whopping £148,600 to MPs since the 2019 general election, including £2,560 to Scott Benton – all within the rules of course.
They’re not shy when it comes to boasting about their influence either. The company has a dedicated ‘political engagement’ page on their website, featuring MPs promoting their work.
According to the internet archiver ‘Wayback Machine’, Scott Benton featured on this page – with a video of him outside the William Hill betting shop in Blackpool – as recently as March 7 this year. An article by Mr Benton for Conservative Home also featured on the page.
Since then, all references to Scott Benton have mysteriously disappeared from the Betting and Gaming Council’s ‘political engagement’ page. Sir Arbuthnot can’t think why…
Rishi’s party cajoling hits the buffers
The polls show that Rishi Sunak may be beginning to persuade voters that he is the right man to lead the country. But his peers of persuasion of Tory MPs still needs some work.
Beachcomber has heard from one Tory backbencher who was told by the Prime Minister that he “has a bright future and is the right stuff to become a minister” in a bid to stop him from rebelling in a crucial vote before the Easter recess.
“That’s strange,” the MP replied.
“You sacked me when you became Prime Minister!”
Marxism festival knows the price of everything and the value of nothing
We’re approaching July, and that means there’s only one topic on everybody’s lips: the forthcoming Marxism Festival 2023 featuring the Rt Hon. Jeremy Corbyn MP.
Yes, the annual Trotskyist jamboree is returning to the School of Oriental and African Studies for its annual get-together.
In 2015 the same festival saw one conferencegoer predict that in 50 years’ time, the Tories will “start rounding up poor people, putting them in work camps and gassing them”. The idea that the Tories will be anywhere near power in 50 years’ time at this rate seems doubtful.
This year’s lineup features Jeremy Corbyn, Ken Loach, the former finance minister of Greece and a whole host of left-wing thinkers who will thankfully never find themselves in the corridors of power.
The punchline of this joke is that for a festival promoting the ideas of Marxism, tickets to event are being flogged as much as £87.38, with the base ticket being priced at £44.
Ironically it seems Liz Truss did manage to hit the socialists where it hurts – thanks to the current rate of inflation, the cheapest ticket has increased in cost by 25 percent since last year…
Humza’s photo op nightmare
With the SNP in turmoil after a bitter leadership contest, the election of an incompetent leader and the arrest of their former CEO, you’d think Humza Yousaf’s advisors would be working overtime to avoid any further headaches for their new leader.
Unfortunately, Humza Yousaf wandered straight onto the set of The Thick of It this week when standing in front of a camera to answer questions about the arrest of Peter Murrell.
To his right – a sign of a man looking uncannily like a roughed-up Mr Yousaf, alongside the text “my local advisor helped me quit”.
To his left – a model skeleton, which had clearly just emerged from the SNP closet after months of attempts to keep it in there.
“My local advisor helped me quit”, Sir Arbuthnot reckons it may be the advisors doing the quitting after that farce…
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