Are £1,000s being spent keeping Huhne up and Ming down?

For the second time in eight days there’s been unusual activity on the Lib Dem markets in the immediate aftermath of a TV programme that might have affected punters’ views of the chances of Chris Huhne and Ming Campbell.

It happened, as the chart above on the Ming Campbell prices illustrates, in the minutes after last night’s Newsnight programme featuring the critical report on Chris Huhne by investigative journalist, Michael Crick.

As Guido reports at one stage somebody with deep pockets offered £5,000 to lay Campbell at 1.46/1 thus hindering a tightening of the 64-year old’s price. At the same time the opposite was going on with the Huhne price.

What was interesting was that this followed the same pattern that we saw after last week’s Question Time debate. The chart below shows how the Betfair betting exchange price changed during that programme and straight afterwards.

The main scene for this is Betfair – the biggest betting exchange and the place where many other parts of the betting industry look to see how markets are developing.

With momentum counting for an enormous amount in this Lib Dem race then maybe someone is prepared to risk a few thousand pounds to keep their man looking in a good light.

Mike Smithson