The imposition of a single betting tax would be devastating for British horseracing, said the Leader of the Opposition after being welcomed to Newmarket by local MP Nick Timothy last week.
Kemi Badenoch issued the warning to the Government during a listening event and discussion with representatives of the racing and breeding sectors at Tattersalls on 4 July 2025.
The racing industry representatives said the Government risked destroying sport with short-sighted gambling-related policy changes.
Ministers are consulting on plans to harmonise different gambling taxes into a single remote Betting and Gaming Duty. This could lead to an increase in the rate on sports and racing betting from 15% to the 21% imposed on games of online casino and slots gambling on top of the betting levy that applies to bets on racing. The consultation on this change will close on 21 July.
Meanwhile, affordability checks by bookmakers on some punters have also negatively affected the sport’s finances. These checks can include personal documentation being requested by bookmakers at sometimes relatively low levels of spend.
Ms Badenoch was joined in the listening exercise by Shadow Culture Secretary Stuart Andrew, Shadow Sports Minister Louie French, Shadow Environment Minister Dr Neil Hudson — who is also trained equine vet — and by local West Suffolk MP Nick Timothy.
Modelling commissioned by the British Horseracing Authority has found that aligning racing betting with online casino gambling could harm racing’s finances by as much as £66 million.
Six-time champion trainer John Gosden — who showed Mr French, Mr Andrew, Dr Hudson and Mr Timothy around his Clarehaven Stables and the Gallops just before the conference — said the Treasury was failing to distinguish between the risks connected with different forms of gambling. He said at the conference: “What this Government cannot get through their head is that casino online gambling is addictive online gambling… It needs to be hit hard but if you put us in that bracket it is disastrous.”
In response to Mr Gosden, Ms Badenoch — who is the MP for nearby North West Essex— said: “We need the Treasury to do more thinking. The most important thing is to ensure that horseracing stays here, it continues to thrive here, that we are the international beacon. We need to be the magnet for investment for growth. That’s what going to be most helpful and that’s where the Treasury should start from.”
Replying to the point that the Government did not seem to have a firm policy on whether it wanted a flat betting tax yet, Mr French said: “One of the big frustrations that we find is that every part of the gambling and sporting world are much struggling to get engagement from the Government.”
And Ms Badenoch added: “It is the cumulative impact that [of the various actions that the Government is taking] that is worrying. I hear the same from farmers about endless changes affecting them. We need to get back to where we used to be…. The Government needs to create an enabling environment… We have to have a country where all of the special things in our country don’t just disappear because of carelessness.”
One participant in the event said one of the issues was that the Gambling Commission was ‘out of control’. In response, Ms Badenoch said: “We are looking at what is the job of a regulator on the question of overreach. Do we need to curtail their powers? How do we stop them from carrying on with mission creep? It is not just the gambling commission but regulators across the board.”
Meanwhile, Hugh Anderson, CEO of Godolphin Stables — which is one of Newmarket’s largest employers — warned that the impact of National Insurance rises imposed by the Government last year was significant, and risked harming the employment of young people who were keen to get into the breeding industry.
Ms Badenoch replied: “[The Government] have created a spiral. It is now higher taxes which means businesses doing less, meaning less growth which means they need to borrow more… They don’t seem to have a plan so borrowing has become more expensive and less sustainable. We can’t just say that everything is going to be fine and we can’t pretend that some of those mistakes were not ours.”
She continued: “We need to tell people this is not how our country can function… We can get through this. We will change the system. We will do as much as possible to harry them into not doing stupid things.”
Ms Badenoch said she had optimism in the ability to pressure the Government into climbdowns, highlighting recent policy shifts made by ministers on issues such as the winter fuel allowance and a national inquiry into grooming gangs.
The event with Ms Badenoch was followed by another discussion session between the industry representatives and Mr Timothy, Mr French, Mr Andrew and Dr Hudson.
Dr Hudson said more needed to be done by the Government to improve digital identification and the traceability of race horses, to prevent abuses, fraud and criminal activity, and to ease the legitimate movement of thoroughbreds across borders.
Commenting after the event, Mr Timothy said: “What began as a tidying-up exercise by the Treasury now has the potential to be extremely damaging to a precious sport which is of huge value to the UK and which has massive economic, cultural and historic significance, especially for Newmarket and West Suffolk.
“Any increased revenue from this ‘racing tax’ would be vastly outmatched by its harm to the second most popular sport in the UK — a sport which is a joy to many and which unites people across backgrounds.”
