Brown Urges Reeves to Increase Gambling Taxes at Budget

Gordon Brown has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to increase the gambling taxes so she can lift benefit restrictions at her autumn Budget.

The former Labour prime minister and chancellor says Britain is facing a “social crisis” with a growing need to take children out of poverty.

Hiking taxes on the “undertaxed” gambling industry was “by far the most cost-effective way” for the chancellor to do this, he argued.

The Betting and Gaming Council, which represents gambling companies, warned the “economically reckless” plan would push gamblers into the black market.

Reeves is widely expected to raise taxes at this autumn’s Budget, after poor economic figures and a series of U-turns on welfare cuts made it harder to meet the government’s self-imposed spending rules.

It has prompted speculation about which areas the chancellor, who reportedly kept a framed photo of predecessor Brown in her room as a student, could look to when putting together her Budget this autumn.