Hello, I'm Hugo Rifkin, and now we're going to be unpacking the news and politics of the day,

from British Steel to Katie Perry in the cosmos.

And joining me to help are two of the people I would most love to accompany me into space, it says here.

Times Chief Political Commentator Patrick McIntyre.

Hello, Patrick. Good morning, Hugh.

Thank you for being with us. And Times columnist Emma Duncan. Hello, Emma. Hi, Hugo. That's awfully

sweet of you. I'm longing to count. Like I said, it's just written down in front of me. I haven't even

given any thought. But actually, now I think of it, why not? It'd be great. Maybe there's even a podcast in it, the three of us in space.

Craig Williams, the former Conservative MP, is among 15 people who have been charged with bets that were placed on the timing of the 2024 election. Perhaps you remember this was basically

when Rishi Sunak announced his election in the rain. It turned out various people had placed

bets on when it was going to happen.

He was one of a number of people, linked to the Conservative Party, reported to have made bets

on that date before it was called by Rishi Sunak. Patrick, reminds, this was a really big pre-election

story. It was. It took up about a week of the campaign. Craig Williams, of course, was Rishi

Sunak's parliamentary private secretary, so his

closest aid in the commons. He's very close to Rishi Sunak in and out of number 10. There are also

several senior conservative officials and a close protection officer, all of whom knew the date of the

election before it was called and lumped on and stood to win quite a lot of money, or indeed did

win a lot of money, their suspicious bets were flagged to the Gambling Commission.

And if listeners may recall, one, this took up a week of the campaign and two, Craig Williams

and others, including the Tory candidate for Bristol North West, who was the wife of a senior

Tory official who was also suspended.

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