The gambling watchdog has been urged to investigate ‘suspicious’ insider betting on Chancellor John Healey’s shock appointment, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
His post was the biggest surprise of last week’s Cabinet reshuffle following days of predictions that either Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood or then-energy security secretary Ed Miliband would land the job.
Ms Mahmood was the odds-on favourite for the Treasury immediately before the appointment, rated an 84 per cent probability at 1/5 by betting exchange site Smarkets.
But in the hours before Mr Healey was formally announced at 6pm on Monday, four bets were placed – at 8am, 10am, noon and 1pm – at odds of between 80/1 and 140/1. Each punt stood to win at least £600, well above the £100 threshold that triggers a Gambling Commission investigation.
They have now been reported to the watchdog.
The former defence secretary’s appointment had been decided by Team Burnham long in advance – but Labour ensured it was not leaked by keeping, in the words of one source, ‘the circle very, very tight’.
This newspaper understands Mr Healey and Treasury rival Ed Miliband held a secret summit at the latter’s constituency office in Doncaster three weeks before Andy Burnham became Prime Minister, where they discussed Mr Healey’s path to the job.
The gambling watchdog has been urged to investigate ‘suspicious’ insider betting on Chancellor John Healey’s (pictured) shock appointment
One person with knowledge of the meeting said even respective advisers were kept out of the room, with the summit held ‘without minders’ to avoid word leaking out.
But on the day, the formalities of the appointment meant far more people needed to know, including Labour advisers and MPs, civil servants and police officers.
Robert Jenrick on Saturday told the MoS: ‘The watchdog should investigate this suspicious activity. It was only last month that a former Tory MP pleaded guilty to cheating at gambling over the timing of the general election. It would be outrageous if someone at the top of the Labour party has done the same.’
The watchdog has not revealed whether it has launched a full review, citing the need to ‘preserve the integrity of investigations’. It regards insider betting as a criminal offence under the Gambling Act 2005.
When it emerged that some Tories had used inside knowledge to bet on the date of the June 2024 election, Labour politicians did not shy away from calls for a full criminal investigation. Pat McFadden, now Work and Pensions Secretary, wrote a public letter to then-prime minister Rishi Sunak about ‘the gambling scandal engulfing the Tory party’.
He said: ‘It looks like one rule for members of the Tory party and another for everyone else.’
He also demanded the immediate suspension of anyone involved and wrote to the Gambling Commission’s chief executive calling for a full investigation and for individuals to be publicly named.
Those Tories, including Mr Sunak’s closest aide, Craig Williams MP, were prosecuted for smaller bets than the ones now under scrutiny.
Labour politicians have been markedly less vocal about the current allegations. Asked whether the party would back calls for an investigation, a Labour spokesman declined to comment.
