Ex-Tory MP and Rishi Sunak's aide Craig Williams admits cheating at gambling with bets on date of 2024 general election

Ex-Tory MP and Rishi Sunak's aide Craig Williams admits cheating at gambling with bets on date of 2024 general election - Do you have a story? Email: jon.brady@dailymail.co.uk - See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Rishi Sunak's parliamentary private secretary has pleaded guilty to cheating at gambling after placing bets on the date of the 2024 general election. Craig Williams, 41, who was also the MP for Montgomeryshire until 2024, admitted using confidential information as he placed a number of bets on the election being held in July of that year. Williams, who had been part of Mr Sunak's inner circle, had attended a series of planning meeting in Downing Street ahead of the general election being announced. The politician, of Llanfair Caereinion, Welshpool, Powys, entered his guilty plea at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Monday. He bet £250, £100, and £22.50 on the election date, prosecutors said. Prosecutor Zoe Johnson KC said three further cheating charges, which Williams denies, will be dropped when he is sentenced. She said Williams, a member of the Privy Council since October 2023, was in a 'privileged position... party to a number of meetings in both Downing Street and Conservative headquarters when the date of the general election was discussed'. Williams will not be sentenced until co-defendants who have denied similar charges have stood trial. Amy Hind, 35, the wife of Conservative deputy digital director Anthony Hind, also pleaded guilty to cheating at gambling on the date of the election. Rishi Sunak's former parliamentary private secretary Craig Williams has admitted cheating at gambling after he placed a bet on the date of the 2024 General Election (pictured today) Williams served as PPS to Rishi Sunak when he was both Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister (pictured together at the Tory party conference in 2021) She had placed bets of £10, £5, and £20 on the date of the election, before on May 13 2024 attempting to stake £767 and £700 on a July poll. Those attempts failed and she attempted to place a £700 bet the following day before successfully placing a £100 bet on a July election, at odds of 11-1. A separate charge against her husband, 37, that he had cheated at gambling by passing information to his wife was then dropped by prosecutors. Hind is due to be sentenced by Judge Tony Baumgartner, the Recorder of Westminster, on October 23. The pair made bets at a time when traditionally sports-focused betting houses opened 'special markets' for the election, and when planning was happening at both Downing Street and Conservative Campaign Headquarters, the Gambling Commission said. In a statement released following the hearing, it said of Williams' and Hind's offences: 'This was not a market to be abused by those with inside information as to when the election would be held. 'These two defendants placed bets themselves. In doing so, they cheated.' A total of 12 co-defendants pleaded not guilty to cheating at gambling in relation to bets on the 2024 election. Trials have been set for September 2027 and January 2028. Among those to deny the charges are Russell George, 52, a former member of the Senedd for Montgomeryshire, and Thomas James, 39, who was then the director of the Welsh Conservatives. Also charged is Jeremy Hunt, 56, a one-time close protection officer with the Metropolitan Police and part of the police team working in Downing Street. Co-defendants are Anthony Lee, 49, a Conservative Party director of campaigning, and his wife, Laura Saunders, 38, who was head of international at Tory HQ and the parliamentary candidate for Bristol North-West. Lee faces two charges, alleging he placed bets himself and passed confidential information to his wife to allegedly help her to cheat at gambling. Also accused are Tory officials Nick Mason, 52, the chief data officer, Iain Makepeace, 48, head of design and print, his boss, Simon Chatfield, 52, who was chief marketing officer, and deputy director of insights James Ward, 41. Mason is a Herefordshire councillor who remains an independent after having the Conservative whip withdrawn. Other co-defendants are Paul Place, 55, a consultant employed by the Conservative Party, political strategist and former parliamentary candidate Charlotte Lang, 37, and Jacob Willmer, 40, the brother of Tory party deputy chief of staff Toby Willmer. Judge Baumgartner has set trials to start on September 6 2027 and January 3 2028. The defendants have been given unconditional bail. Williams (right, on the day of the Autumn Budget in 2021) was part of Rishi Sunak's inner circle for years Mr Williams, seen today leaving Southwark Crown Court, later lost the support of the Conservative party and ultimately failed to be re-elected in 2024 Williams' bet was among several referred to the Gambling Commission, which launched Operation Scott amid concerns that politicians and employees of the Conservative Party had put wagers on the date of the election. The former aide himself apologised for the £100 bet, admitting on June 12 2024 that he had 'put a flutter on the general election some weeks ago' and that it had been a 'huge error of judgment'. However, neither he nor the then-Prime Minister were drawn on whether he had known the date of the election. Mr Sunak did, however, call Williams' conduct 'very disappointing'. Williams, a one-time Cardiff City councillor, served as MP for Cardiff North between 2015 and 2017 before he lost his seat to Labour MP Anna McMorrin. He then stood in Montgomeryshire in 2019 where he was then appointed parliamentary private secretary to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He then served as Mr Sunak's PPS for the first time when he was Chancellor under Boris Johnson's premiership, before following his boss into No 10. As the scandal emerged in the weeks before the 2024 election, the Conservative party withdrew its support for his candidacy, and vowed not to grant him the Tory whip should he be re-elected. Williams ultimately finished third in the Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr constituency with 7,775 votes, finishing behind Reform UK and Labour, which took the seat. This is a breaking story - refresh for updates.