Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
So there you have it – after weeks of electioneering and tittle tattle, the worst kept secret in politics is out and Liz Truss has been confirmed as the new prime minister.
Accepting a mandate for navigating the cost of living crisis, soaring energy costs, the highest rate of inflation in decades and the war in Ukraine, Truss is either an optimist, a careerist or a masochist….only time will tell as to which it is.
Like a football manager joining a new club, Truss gets to bring in her own backroom staff, and getting the nod for the big jobs in the Cabinet are Therese Coffey (deputy prime minister), Kwase Kwarteng (chancellor), James Cleverly (foreign secretary) and Suella Braverman (home secretary).
The reshuffle has seen the likes of Priti Patel and Nadine Dorries depart their roles, with the latter replaced as Michelle Donelan as the culture minister.
And that, it would seem, could be bad news for the betting sector, with Donelan – a noted gambling industry reformist and sceptic – set to oversee the regulatory review of the UK scene this autumn.
Heading Into Battle
Donelan, the MP for Chippenham since 2015, has longed for a career in politics for some time – she once spoke at the Conservative Party Conference at the tender age of 15.
But after graduating, she took up a career in marketing instead, working for brands as diverse as Marie Claire magazine and the WWE wrestling franchise.
A pro-Brexiteer, Donelan has plenty of experience in the education sector, having been previously been appointed parliamentary under-secretary for children and the minister of state for universities. She would later become the minister for higher and further education.
Her career has not been without controversy, however. In 2021, Donelan became the shortest-serving Cabinet minister in history, lasting less than 36 hours as education secretary.
She was appointed by Boris Johnson less than two days before the Chris Pincher scandal emerged, with Donelan one of the serving ministers to hand in their resignation as part of the mass walkout at BoJo’s handling of the affair.
Walking Contradiction
Like many politicians before, Donelan is often never quite sure what she believes.
She once wrote about the ‘increasingly narrow ideology’ that has engulfed modern culture, bemoaning warnings slapped on films and TV shows that the content contained within might be offensive to some.
Okay, you might be thinking, maybe Donelan is some kind of spirited, progressive thinker with a taste for the liberal!? Well, not exactly: she has voted against equal rights for non-heterosexuals and gave the thumbs down SIX TIMES to proposed law changes that promote equality and human rights.
Once could be considered an accident, but six different instances of voting against equal human rights? The mind boggles.
For the UK gambling sector, meanwhile, there could be more bad news on the horizon following Donelan’s appointment to the top job in culture and sport.
All Bets Are Off
As reported in the Racing Post, Donelan has previously spoken of her vision to reform the gambling industry.
And she will get her chance, in a fashion, as she oversees the publication and fallout of the government’s Gambling Act white paper, which is now the best part of two years in the making.
It was back in 2018 that Donelan gave her support for the reduction in maximum stake on FOBTs in high street betting shops, and later claimed that gambling advertising in sport and elsewhere was ‘preying on the vulnerable’.
Quite what she has in mind for betting firms remains to be seen, although her distaste for widespread advertising suggests a proposed ban on operators sponsoring the shirts of English football teams is likely to be upheld.
Given the cost of living crisis, other measures designed to protect the vulnerable – such as stake limits and enhanced affordability checks – could also be on the table once more.
Unsurprisingly, Michael Dugher – head of the industry representative group the Betting and Gaming Council – was quick to welcome her to the new post with plenty of nice words….while pumping the tyres of his sector. “On behalf of the 119,000 people whose jobs are supported by our members – from the high street to hospitality, from tourism to tech – I’d like to congratulate Michelle Donelan on her new role as Secretary of State for DCMS.
“Our industry generates £4.5bn in taxes for the Treasury and contributes £7.7bn for the economy in gross value added,” he said, with little interest in coding his message.
She will be receiving plenty of celebratory bunches of flowers and boxes of chocolates from betting industry stakeholders in the days ahead, you fancy.
