The government is facing significant pressure from Conservative MPs over its decision to delay implementing a planned reduction in the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals, as speculation grows that the minister who led the policy could resign in protest.
Tracey Crouch, a junior culture minister who spearheaded efforts that led to an announcement in May that the maximum stake on FOBTs would be cut from £100 to £2, was missing from ministerial questions on Thursday morning.
Jeremy Wright, the culture secretary, said in response to a question from the Labour MP Kevin Brennan that Crouch had just returned from a ministerial trip to the US.
“It seemed to me unwise to rely on public transport or London traffic to be sure of her being here, so we made arrangements for me to answer questions,” Wright said.
There had been reports that Crouch was meeting the chief whip to discuss her future, following an article in the Telegraph saying she could resign.
Wright faced renewed criticism from the shadow culture secretary, Tom Watson, who was granted an urgent question to ask why a “verbal promise” to make the change in April 2019 was amended in the budget to October next year.
This was “a betrayal of the promise made by his two predecessors”, Watson told Wright, asking if Crouch had resigned.
“In capitulating to the gambling industry, the secretary of state has not just let the victims of gambling down, he’s let his own team down, and ultimately, he’s let himself down,” Watson said.
Wright rejected the criticism, insisting the original planned date for the change had been April 2020, and thus it was not a delay.
It was important to consider the immediate damage caused by FOBTs, Wright said, adding: “But it was also right to consider planning to reduce job losses, and allowing time for that time to take effect.
“We are taking decisive action to ensure that we have a responsible gambling industry that protects the most vulnerable in our society.”
But he faced calls from senior Tory backbenchers to reconsider. The former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said when the reduction in the maximum stake was announced, he had been “enormously proud of my government for taking what was a bold and important decision that put lives ahead of profits”.
He continued: “It is not too late. For the sake of those people whose families and lives have been destroyed, and there may yet be more, many more, to follow them, I urge my right honourable friend to think again and to bring forward the date so we may end this scourge.”
Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP who chairs the health and social care select committee, said the gambling industry had been given plenty of time to adjust, adding: “The tragedy of lives lost [due to] suicide has to be our absolute priority here.”
When ministers announced the stake cut, following intense pressure from campaigners about the scale of the problems FOBTs cause for gambling addicts, it had been expected this would be implemented in April next year.
However, in documents released with the budget, the Treasury announced this date would now be October 2019, a delay local councils warned about last week.
The wait is to allow bookmakers and the gambling industry to adjust to the change, as well as helping Treasury coffers, with the lower stake expected to cost £1.15bn in reduced gaming duty over five years.
Campaigners say FOBTs are hugely addictive and cause enormous social damage. Carolyn Harris, the Labour MP who chairs an all-party parliamentary group on the machines, said the delay was “immoral and exploitative”.
Downing Street said the October deadline was “a balance between making sure we protect those who work in the industry and making sure that we bring in this really important change”.
