Rumours are circulating that the surge in support for Nigel Farage’s Reform Party could prompt drastic action from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer – with potentially key consequences for the oversight of UK gambling.
As a governmental reshuffle looms, consideration is reportedly being given to the abolishing of the DCMS. The move would be part of a wider reorganisation of government strategies and oversight.
The government is likely looking for ways to strengthen its safeguards against dark horse non-traditional parties, which continue to gain support, with Reform recently securing major gains in local council elections. In total, the partywon 32% of the vote, surpassing both Labour and Conservative and capturing 677 council seats and 10 councils.
Reform leader Farage unsurprisingly played up the landmark nature of the results as he stated his belief that last week’s local elections were “another sign of the British public breaking away from the status quo”.
Nonetheless, Labour asserts that it will not descend into hysteria as Reform still holds just five seats in Parliament following the 2024 general election.
In spite of this, The Sunday Times reports that Starmer has tasked his principal strategist, Morgan McSweeney, with forming a new narrative for Labour to demonstrate its focus on tackling major issues and delivering change.
Credited as the lead architect of Labour’s 2024 general election victory, McSweeney acknowledged “a big gap between politics and the people in this country,” adding: “They’re not going to accept us until we’ve actually delivered change.”
A potential reorganisation of government could include an axing of DCMS, The Sunday Times reports. Any disruptions to the DCMS would come at a major time for UK gambling as white paper changes are being implemented across UK the regulated industry.
In 2025, DCMS and the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) scheduled the rollout of several key measures, including online slot stake limits and game design protections (effective from 9 April). The application of a new statutory gambling levy (from 6 April), and the introduction of direct marketing controls (from 1 May).
However, the formalisation of financial vulnerability checks (currently in the second phase of testing), have yet to be completed.
There is also still work to be done in terms of changes to land-based gambling, and the remit of the proposed Gambling Ombudsman. Any transitional steps taken by Starmer could also disrupt the UKGC’s lead GamProtect project, which aims to establish a single customer view of gambling harms and accountability.
