Why the betting saga is important

Reporting on politics is about two things: engaging with political measures and, often, highlighting human fallibility.

Public life subjects those who participate in it voluntarily to intense scrutiny – and that is its job.

Democracy demands this, and reporters must ask uncomfortable questions and try to find out things that will help you make judgments.

And this is the core word: judgment.

These revelations could shed at least some light on the judgment of those who hold leadership positions, hold office, or seek office.

To be clear: With all the developments of the last few days related to alleged betting, there is a lot that reporters do not know.

In many of the alleged cases, we do not know whether there was actually a bet, how much was staked, how many bets there were, what exactly was bet on, what the odds were, how much the winnings were and – crucially – what the person placing the bet knew or did not know about the election date.

The circumstances and context of each individual case may be entirely different, and we should be clear about that.

Journalism can be long-winded and imperfect. We reporters rarely know as much as we would like to know, and we never stop asking questions.

Over the past few days, I have received tips and made a barrage of phone calls and inquiries to piece together the details of this story that we have covered online, on television and on the radio.

Other BBC colleagues, the Sunday Times and the Guardian have done the same.

In such situations, party leaders can quickly become prisoners of the alleged behavior of others.

Imagine you were Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer after today’s revelation about a Labour candidate. You would be glowing.

But you will also be judged by your response: the nature and speed of your response.

Labour is trying to make a virtue out of its relative speed by distancing itself from its candidate, who had a chance, and contrasting this with the Tories’ slowness, which it sees as unattainable.

But a politician’s actions can also set unpleasant precedents and make him dependent on fate. How many other candidates might have gambled on their own fate or the fate of others?

I cannot remember any final phase of an election campaign that was so marked by a horror show of daily developments on a single issue as we are currently experiencing.

And as I have said over the last few days and will say again, there is a good chance that we have not heard the last of this.