Back punters
LAST week punters enjoyed a brilliant Cheltenham Festival, with great racing — and big odds winners to boot.
Just around the corner are the Grand National and the footie World Cup, when millions will fancy a bet on England finally bringing it home.
So, bang on cue, here comes the Government wanting to tell people precisely how they can and can’t spend their OWN hard-earned money.
Under hurried Gambling Commission plans, punters could face unprecedentedly intrusive “affordability” checks more akin to applying for a mortgage than picking out a horse.
People could be blocked from betting for missing a mobile phone bill, unless they open up their bank accounts for inspection.
Unsurprisingly, research shows many people will balk at such disruption — and head to the entirely unregulated illegal market instead.
READ MORE FROM THE SUN SAYS
The black market invests NOTHING in punter safety. The exodus there would be a further blow to the gambling industry and sports that rely on it for funding, chiefly horse racing.
And, crucially, it will deprive Chancellor Rachel Reeves of £200million in tax revenue, with much of the cash instead going to organised criminals.
Bookies insist tighter rules and existing checks are working to tackle harm.
Now is not the time for a botched new State intervention which will whack punters and sports already reeling from the Budget tax-grab on gambling.
Do yourself and Britain’s punters a favour, Chancellor: tell the quangocrats at the Commission to think again.
It never Rayns
IS it “un-British” to want to stop people from overseas exploiting our broken migration system?
Angela Rayner seems to think so, judging by her decision to unleash a nakedly ambitious attack on her former Cabinet colleague Shabana Mahmood.
The disgraced former Deputy PM still hasn’t been cleared by tax investigators for not paying enough Stamp Duty on her £800,000 flat.
But that hasn’t stopped her making a brazen bid to burnish her Labour leadership claims.
Rayner hopes to exploit a rebellion by up to 100 Labour backbenchers over Mahmood’s immigration reforms, which include entirely sensible plans to make refugee status temporary — and extend the time before indefinite leave to remain claims can be made to 10 years.
Sir Keir Starmer’s initial refusal to back his Home Secretary over Rayner yesterday — and confirm the plans will definitely go ahead — was another worrying sign of the Left’s increasing hold over Downing Street.
Voters demanding an end to the asylum madness and controlled immigration are on Mahmood’s side.
But is the PM?
