Reform Leader Nigel Farage was surprisingly unequivocal in his support for high street bookmakers yesterday, as he hosted a press conference to unveil the small business plan being proposed by the surging party.
Farage echoed the warnings of a myriad of key UK operators and the BGC that if the budget leads to gaming duty increasing significantly, it will cause the mass closure of retail betting shops.
Going against the grain of the mainstream political narrative, Farage stated his fear that ‘innocent amusements’ like those on Clacton Pier will be closed as a result of Rachel Reeves’ tax changes.
When asked about the current state of the British High Street, Farage said: “The high street has had problems for all sorts of reasons. Turkish barber shops are doing very, very well indeed. Whilst many of the people here have been de-banked because they had one payment that seems to be unusual and they’re caught under AML regulations.
“What I would say about the high street is that one of the things that does still survive is the bookmaker shop – which actually, for a lot of lonely people, is a place they can go in and meet people. There are 22 million people a week who have a bet of some kind in this country. Yes, there are a few problem gamblers, but there are problem drinkers, there are problem drug takers, there are problem everythings.
“I worry that if she (Rachel Reeves) puts up Gaming Duty significantly in this budget, not only will it close hundreds, maybe thousands of high street bookmakers, but I genuinely wonder whether Clacton Pier and the other 400 Seaside villages and towns, my worry is that it will close all those down too.
“You have to get this right, and it will be a tax, a tax on turnover and not on profit, so the impact on the high street and on the seasides could be very serious. I hope she listens, and I know The Sun has been taking this incredibly seriously and quite rightly.”
Farage’s intervention comes amidst increasing tension and speculation within the government, with widespread rumours circulating last night that Health Secretary Wes Streeting was plotting to oust Sir Keir Starmer as he looks to capitalise on budget turmoil later in the month.
Streeting has since denied any rumours of a potential leadership bid, describing them as ‘self-defeating’ as he looks to bring stability back to the frontbenches ahead of the budget at the end of November.
The former Prime Minister and Labour leader, Gordon Brown, was on Good Morning Britain yesterday in the opposite corner to Farage when it comes to gambling tax.
He told GMB: “We tax cigarettes at 80%, we tax alcohol at 70%, but the online gambling tax is 21%. There is social harm done by gambling, people can get addicted. The Gambling Council is wrong to say there is no social harm.”
Brown followed this up by continuing the pressure as he appeared on Sky News, where he expressed: “I am confident that the two-child rule will be addressed. We’re waiting for Rachel Reeves’s budget, which I think will mention this. Keir Starmer, I know, is personally concerned and interested in this.
“So I’m hopeful that in the next few weeks we’ll see the kind of action that we’ve been talking about. “I think they [gambling companies] could well afford to pay a tax – and I want that money to go to child poverty.”
“So, move the money from, if you like, the bad, by taxing it. And put it to good, which is children taken out of poverty.”
