Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on the gambling scandals in the lead up to the election

Transcript

Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on the gambling scandals in the lead up to the election · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay Bown, Gavin Briver A good morning to you, hi, Mike.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Has anyone left who hasn't beat on the election or
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the constituency?
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Ah ah yeah me yes. This is turning into an
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: extraordinary saga. So we'd already known that one police officer
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: with the close protection unit of the Prime Minister was
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: being investigated in a criminal investigation for placing a bet
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: on the date of the election, the allegations being of course,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: that somehow he found out, maybe having overheard a conversation,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: that the date of the election was going to be
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: next week, July the fourth, and of course at those
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: points the odds were long on that because the Prime
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Minister seemed unlikely to call it so soon. Now we're
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: learning another five police officers were alleged to a police
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: bets relating to the day of the election. They are
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: not said, however, to be in the protection squad of
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister. And then later today the Prime Minister
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: announced that two of his candidates who had been accused
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: of also betting in this election, were going to be
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: suspended from the part. But ironically, of course, because they're
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: on the ticket already, there's just a week to go,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: they are still going to be voted on next week.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: It's just that they'll have to stand as independence if
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: they win a seat. And then, just in the last
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: hour and a half a Labor candidate, the Party of
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Opposition has immediately suspended one of its candidates after being
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: told that the Gambling Commission had launched an investigation into him.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: As I say, Mike, I'm feeling rather left out.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I was going to say, Now, that's one
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: point four billion pounds of the ppe that got destroyed.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Is this part of the campaign in the sense that
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: you go back and suddenly think about COVID, think about
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: how COVID was run, and that's one of the many
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: things that's plaguing the Tories or not.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, And also the fact that some of this personal
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: protective equipment is now reaching its expiry date or has
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: reached its expiry date. So yeah, I know it's only plastics,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: but these things of course required tight fitting. Could therefore
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: some sort of plastic or elastic fittings which need to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: be firm and flexible. And in the biggest, it's thought
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the biggest ever right off of a single contract from
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the government, this one point four billion pounds Over three
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: billion New Zealand dollars worth of personal protection is to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: be destroyed or written off. It's one contract and at
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: least one point five to seven billion items of PPE
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: provided by this one supplier will never be used. They
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: did use some of it, but not very much of it. Incidentally,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: this firm has done nothing wrong that the two co directors,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: one of them the former nurse, have managed to buy
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: off the back of some of their hard work and
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: dare I say this contract have managed to buy a
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: very nice villa in Barbados and one on the south
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: coast of England, et cetera, et cetera. But let me
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: stress they've done nothing wrong. It was simply the government
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: scrambling around for the right PPE, finding it and then
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: never using it.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Hey, I notice it's twenty seven in London. You enjoying
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: that or is it too much?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Well, I've just been in the car for two hours.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: It's a little bit actic, but yeah, it's I'm loving
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the sunshine at last.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Thanks Rag, good on you. Gavin grim out of Britain
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 3:01
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• 3:04
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• 3:05
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• 3:08
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