Every time you think things could not get any worse for the Conservative Party in the election campaign, they do.

The D-Day debacle was bad enough, and in the eyes of many, did enough damage on its own to rock the party back and leave it exposed to the embarrassing charge that the Prime Minister didn’t care about the veterans on the 80th anniversary commemorations.

That is not the case, but it was not the impression many were left with in a serious PR blunder which forced Rishi Sunak into an abject apology for leaving before the various commemoration services and events were completed.

After a brief respite from other campaign difficulties, the Conservatives are now engulfed in a betting scandal, with allegations swirling around that at least four people used inside information to bet on a snap summer poll.

This is even trickier for the party: it cannot put the lid on the issue as there is an ongoing inquiry into the allegations, meaning it is impossible to draw a line under it so long as that inquiry is going on.

This is potentially more worrying and potentially more incriminating because it revives memories of other misdemeanours, notably the Downing Street ‘partygate’ affair in which the rules on gatherings during the Covid pandemic were breached on a routine basis by various aides, SPADs and spin doctors. The PM and his predecessor at the time were also found to be in breach on one occasion and were issued with penalty fines.

The betting scandal has triggered a familiar line of attack: namely, it is another example of politicians’ self-interest; using inside information, it is claimed, to make some money on the side.

The allegations have mostly been denied by the individuals involved but it is yet another episode the opposition parties have dubbed as a further example of “one rule for them and another for us”.

It has the hallmarks of a plot line from the sitcom Only Fools and Horses - only not one that leaves you laughing.

• If the decision by Rishi Sunak to call a snap election was partly designed to blindside Nigel Farage, it has been a spectacular failure.

Farage is the kind of politician who has an endless supply of ‘get out of jail free’ cards that other party leaders don’t and wish they had.

The leader of the Reform UK party officially launched his campaign - and it is very much his campaign - with the declaration: “Yes, I am back.” Perhaps channelling Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator?

What was intriguing was his pronouncement that he was coming back for the long haul. That, he said, meant a five-year-long campaign. That’s plenty of time for Reform UK to fall out with each other.

Like him or not, you can’t deny that he is an astute political operator and it looks like he is finally going to succeed in his efforts to become an MP - at the eighth time of asking.

Around the same time as Farage was launching his bid to get into the Commons, more senior Conservative figures have been throwing in the towel and suggesting that voters should weigh up whether they wanted to give another party - Labour - a ‘supermajority.’

In a way, the Tory political fatalism shows the depths to which the party has sunk. Can you imagine how Margaret Thatcher, the ultimate conviction politician, would have reacted if aides and spin doctors had told her the best course of action was to encourage voters to put their cross against another party?

• There are still 10 days of the campaign to go but, if the polls are right, it is highly likely that another election will get underway - the battle to be the next leader of the Conservative Party.

And inevitably there is already speculation that the incumbent Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling, Tom Tugendhat, is preparing a bid.

He was among the field of candidates last time around and had a good campaign - albeit one that failed to make the crucial final shortlist.

Of course, no candidate is going to show his or her cards now - not just because that would be unseemly - but because no one knows how the Conservatives are going to perform when July 4 comes around.

When it comes to a new leader, the first stage of the process is for the Parliamentary party to whittle down a shortlist.

So there’s no point soliciting support from MPs who might not be there any longer.