And why not? If ever there was a time to come clean quickly, deal with whoever is guilty, and try to move on immediately having shown you're in control and are capable of making tough decisions in the thick of it, it is right now. The longer Sunak delays and obfuscates, the greater becomes the stink, even without any specific evidence for who is being investigated. If they try to rely on "we can't comment because the Gambling Commission is investigating" then this could lose them more votes than D-day.The gambling regulator’s inquiries into bets placed on the timing of the general election involve more people than those publicly named so far, the BBC understands.
Other people linked to the Conservative Party or the government are being looked into by the Gambling Commission, I am told.
The Commission itself has at no point named any of those it is taking a look at nor said how many. The BBC has previously reported that four Conservative officials, including two election candidates, are being looked into.
Part of the inquiries the betting industry conducts in instances like this is attempting to establish if bets have been placed not just by those who may have had access to privileged information, but those with connections to them too.
This can involve a trawl of social media, for instance, to try to establish digital fingerprints that may provide suggestions about how people may know each other.
The Gambling Commission, we understand, asked betting companies to share details of anyone who had bet £20 or more on a July election.
Labour has stepped up its attempts to keep asking questions about what it is calling "a scandal".
Pat McFadden, the party’s National Campaign Co-ordinator, has written to the chief executive of the Gambling Commission, Andrew Rhodes, to argue that “it is in the public interest that the Gambling Commission makes public the names of other figures you are investigating relating to this matter".
"There will be particular interest in whether any government ministers bet on the date of the election before it was called," he wrote.
In other words, Labour are stoking speculation - without any specific evidence - that a minister, or perhaps more than one, might have placed a bet.
Election campaigns can be a rough old business, and so the absence of knowing the full list of those being looked into allows Labour to ask that question, until every single minister has denied putting on a bet.
How senior a person could be involved? Are there any cabinet ministers that stupid? I don't think we can rule it out.
