Labour under scrutiny over gambling gifts

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot have had a tough time of it lately with the freebie fiasco – and it’s only getting worse. Now it transpires that Labour figures received gifts from the gambling sector worth, er, over £1 million. Talk about a bad bet, eh?

Starmer’s army accepted a range of items from the industry – including tickets to musicals and football matches – with key Cabinet figures implicated. It has emerged that his winter fuel payment-cutting Chancellor Rachel Reeves took three tickets for a show in 2023 from the Betting Gaming Council, alongside £20,000 of donations from gambling organisations for her private office prior to the election. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds took a Wembley ticket worth £3,457 for a European Championship match from Entain, a company in charge of Ladbrokes and Sportingbet. And Transport Secretary Louise Haigh thought it was a good idea to accept hospitality tickets for a League One football match in Wembley from Entain, in a £1,400 gifting bid from the firm.