Greens’ victory in Gorton and Denton shows gambling where politics is heading

The Green Party’s victory in an East Manchester by-election should give betting firms the impetus to think a lot more about politics, if they aren’t already, writes SBC News Editor, Ted Orme-Claye.

Hannah Spencer, the Green Party’s candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election, swooped to victory in the early hours of this morning to become MP for the Greater Manchester constituency.

The plumber-turned-politician’s victory is a huge win for the Greens, with Spencer becoming the party’s fifth sitting MP in the House of Commons and its first in the North of England.

For stakeholders in betting and gambling, Spencer’s win in Gorton and Denton should be taken as an indicator of what direction the political landscape is heading regarding their industry, or even where it already is.

Spencer is just one of 650 MPs overall, so her ability to directly affect government policy is going to be limited, the same way that MPs from the opposition parties – namely the Conservative, Reform, Liberal Democrat, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parties – are limited.

However, the industry should take note of Spencer’s strong stance against gambling and her opposition to some of the industry’s practices. Spencer made this abundantly clear while on the campaign trail this week, sitting down for a podcast discussion with Greens leader Zak Polanski.

“It’s hard to describe the full impact of the harm caused by gambling,” Spencer said, responding to a question from Polanski regarding Labour MPs receiving donations from the gambling industry. 

“It’s not just on the individuals themselves, it’s on their friends and families. People I know have had gambling addictions. I don’t want to live in a world where one gambling company Chief Executive earned £500m off the back of people’s misery, while we live in a society where people rely on food banks.

“And if you’ve got a gambling addiction because you’ve been targeted by these companies, there’s no help on the NHS, it’s charities that are left to pick up the pieces.”

The Greens and the bookies

The Green Party of England and Wales has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity over the past couple of years, positioning itself as a new power on the left-wing of British politics and a serious challenger to the Labour government.

Originating as an environmentalist movement in the 1970s, as its name suggests, the party has taken on a new remit under the leadership of Polanski, with a much heavier emphasis on economic inequalities and social injustices.

The party now has over 198,000 members and has surged in the polls, with the latest YouGov poll giving it 17% support – just one percentage point behind Labour, and seven behind the right-wing populist Reform UK.

Its stance on gambling can broadly be categorised as one of opposition, often positioned as being in favour of reform – perhaps fitting in more with its general anti-corporatist stance. Spencer and Polanski are clearly in favour of some form of gambling reform.

This fits within the wider narrative of the discussion around betting shops. While Polanski and Spencer have slammed some Labour MPs for receiving donations to the industry, many other Labour MPs are also losing patience with bookmakers and casinos.

Dawn Butler, MP for Brent East in London, has been spearheading a campaign that calls for local councils to be given more powers to prevent gambling venues from setting up in local areas. Many MPs and councilors have co-signed Butler’s letter.

The campaign, which won support from Greater Manchester Mayor and attempted Gorton and Denton MP candidate Andy Burnham, focuses more on adult gaming centres, but betting shops have found themselves under the firing line too.

In her conversation with Polanski this week, Spencer said: “Betting shops tend to be in places where more people are poor, and they’re targeted by the betting companies who are just lining their own pockets.

“I’m proud that in the Green party, we don’t take money from gambling companies. It comes from people like us. We’re not bankrolled by gambling companies or lobbyists.

“I don’t want to live in a world where kids are watching football and they’re just exposed to gambling adverts. I don’t think we should have companies whose only aim in life is to bleed people dry.”

The political landscape

The UK betting industry is well aware of the political challenges that lie ahead of it. Again, while the Greens may be accusing Labour of closeness to the industry, the government has introduced what is arguably the toughest tax regime the industry has ever seen, set to come into effect from April next year.

The Labour backbenches are fairly split in two. On the one hand, you have the advocates for gambling reform like Butler and Alex Ballinger MP, the latter of whom was a vocal proponent of former PM Gordon Brown’s proposal to tax the industry to fund anti-childhood poverty campaigning. 

On the other hand, some are more sceptical about over-regulation, particularly with regards to gambling and horse racing. Notable names include Dan Carden and David Baines, members of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Racing and Bloodstock – this is probably where the Greens’ criticism of the governing party is directed.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the Greens, Reform UK has been positioning itself as a supporter of the sector. The Conservatives are also generally in favour of light regulation, though some like Ian Duncan Smith are vocal gambling reform advocates.

A veteran Tory MP, Duncan Smith is Chair of the APPG for Gambling Reform – which also counts Labour’s Butler, Ballinger and Carolyn Harris, among others, as members.

Meanwhile, Reform’s leader, MP for the Essex constituency of Clacton Nigel Farage, was vocal in supporting horse racing, betting shops, and amusements during the tax debates last year. 

BGC Chief Executive, Graine Hurst, even met the outspoken politician at the party’s conference last year, although the fine details of those discussions were not shared.

The Greens’ Spencer has taken aim at Farage’s support for the industry in the past, going as far as to canvas members of his own consistency in Clacton to ask them their own opinions about the gambling space.

Ultimately, the Greens are not a prohibitionist party – the party agenda includes a commitment to legalise drugs, including Class As like cocaine and heroin. 

For some, it would be hypocritical of the party to support an outright ban on gambling, given that this industry is often lumped into the broad category of ‘vices’, which also include cigarettes and alcohol.

Also, the party clearly has no problem with lotteries – at least some elements of it don’t. The Stroud Green Party launched a fundraising lottery in 2022, and the Wirral Green Party includes a lottery on a list of fundraising options on its website.

And on top of this, a Green Party leaflet allegedly distributed in Gorton and Denton featured odds on the party’s victory from Ladbrokes, bet365 and William Hill – though it is not clear whether this leaflet was a legitimate Green Party-produced one, and in this era of ‘fake news’ it’s often hard to tell. 

SBC News reached out to the Greens to confirm if the leaflet was legitimate but received no response.

Regarding the Greens’ policies, what is clear is that, at the very least, the party wants to see serious changes to how gambling is regulated. 

The party sees the biggest corporations in the industry as predatory, as do many Labour MPs if the support for Butler and Ballinger’s campaigns are anything to go by.

This opinion has been made before on SBC News, but it’s important that I make it again – the industry needs to take a look back and assess how the political landscape became so hostile towards the sector, and more importantly, the reasons why. At least from some political circles.

MPs like the newly elected representative for Gorton and Denton believe that many bookmakers, if not all, are predatory. The industry makes a good point when it highlights the dangers of the black market, but needs to prove its own worth in this respect.

With the industry facing allegations that it targets the poorest and most vulnerable in society, it needs to prove that it does not – and it can’t, maybe the anti-gambling lobby has a point…