Key gambling reform campaigner calls for pause to controversial affordability checks
Dr James Noyes, one of the key early advocates of affordability checks for online gamblers, has joined calls for Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, to instruct the Gambling Commission to pause the implementation of checks “until there has been adequate evaluation and scrutiny” of a pilot scheme to assess how checks might work in practice.Noyes’s intervention in the long-running debate over affordability checks comes in an open letter sent to Nandy on Monday.It echoes similar calls for a halt to the process by many senior figures in the racing industry, which fears a disproportionate effect on racing bettors with the potential to cost the industry tens of millions of pounds in income if punters refuse to supply financial information to gambling operators and switch to the black market instead.Noyes says in his letter that while affordability checks were “a worthy idea in principle” when first proposed in 2020, his call for checks was made on the basis “a gambling ombudsman would be created to ensure proper treatment of consumer redress and rights”, “checks would be non-intrusive” and “while preventing serious cases of harm from happening, they would not impede the majority of gamblers from engaging in a lawful activity which involves inherent risk, economic agency and their own money”.Noyes, a senior fellow of the Social Market Foundation (SMF) thinktank, argued for the introduction of affordability checks in their reports published in 2020 and 2021 and a number of his proposals were included in a government white paper on gambling reform, which was published in April 2023.
The Gambling Commission launched a pilot study on what it describes as “financial risk assessments” in September 2024 to assess a two-tier system of checks to highlight possible gambling-related harm and the extent to which checks would be “frictionless”, ie background checks that would not require customers to supply financial information to keep betting,The Commission has yet to publish a final report on the pilot and has not issued an update on its progress since the spring of 2025,A number of media reports in recent weeks have suggested its board could approve the introduction of checks at a meeting next month,In his letter, Noyes says he is “deeply concerned over a lack of transparency” regarding checks and is “reading increasing reports that the pilot scheme has involved inconsistent data, unclear outcomes and unnecessary friction”,He is also “particularly alarmed by reports that checks will prove unnecessarily burdensome to horse racing bettors, to the detriment of that sport”.
The government, Noyes says, has “a duty to listen to the [British Horseracing Authority’s] warnings and to act accordingly, in order to protect such an important part of British cultural and social life”.Noyes is one of Britain’s most prominent advocates for gambling reform and the forcefulness of his intervention is both unexpected and timely as Nandy weighs up whether to intervene and put a halt to any imminent implementation of checks.The final paragraph of his letter concludes that “the current situation of financial risk checks is raising serious questions, which should be addressed by government before any further progress of that policy is made.I am therefore calling on the government to pay heed to the BHA’s warnings and to pause these checks until there has been adequate evaluation and scrutiny.”
UK will not join any Trump blockade of strait of Hormuz
The UK will not be involved in any blockade of the strait of Hormuz, the Guardian understands, after claims by Donald Trump on Sunday that the US would be blockading the waterway with the assistance of Nato allies.Speaking to Fox News, Trump said “it won’t take long to clean out the strait” and claimed “numerous countries are going to be helping us”, adding that the UK and other nations were sending minesweepers.The UK has previously suggested it could play a role in making the strait of Hormuz safe to pass, and it has mine-hunting systems and anti-drone capabilities already in the region.But there have been concerns in Whitehall that complying with Trump’s demand to send ships could escalate the crisis. The UK’s willingness to consider a role in mine-removal operations is seen as distinct from Trump’s blockade proposal
Britain could adopt single market rules without MPs’ vote as part of UK-EU reset
Ministers are planning to fundamentally reshape Britain’s relationship with the European Union, with new legislation that could result in the UK signing up to EU single market rules without a normal parliamentary vote.In a major development in the prime minister’s push for closer ties with the continent after the Iran war, the Guardian understands ministers are bracing to face down opposition to “dynamic alignment” with the EU from those who “scream treason” over the powers in a new EU-UK reset bill.After weeks of Donald Trump’s war with Iran that have exposed the fragility of the UK’s damaged special relationship with the US, ministers argue the move will add billions to the UK economy, help temper the cost of the conflict and boost sluggish productivity.A new bill, which will bring into force the food and drink trade deal with the EU, will contain powers enabling the government to dynamically align with Europe on areas where it has already made agreements. But it will also allow the UK to quickly implement evolving single market rules if it determines it is in the national interest, without having to face full parliamentary scrutiny each time
Reform UK’s ugly response to slavery reparations claims | Letters
It is not necessary to agree with the slavery reparations movement in order to see through the crude and threadbare logic of Zia Yusuf’s tirade against it (Reform UK would stop visas for people from countries seeking slavery reparations, 7 April). Britain’s prominent role in ending the slave trade and subsequently slavery neither absolves its involvement in those enterprises nor erases their effects. Endless reiteration of it does, however, encourage a sentimental attachment to a single, insular version of history.Similarly, to claim that advocates for reparations are using history “as a weapon to drain our treasury” is a wilful misrepresentation, designed to jolt the indignant reflexes of Reform UK supporters too lazy to engage with extensive argument.But the ugly coup de grace in Yusuf’s diatribe is his willingness to demonise whole populations whose governments have the audacity to question historical narrative or to possess opinions built on principle – a crime so heinous that it deserves the denial of visas for entry to Britain
Sorry, Keir Starmer, but pensioners don’t feel better off under this government | Letter
For the most part in his recent article (Workers, pensioners and children: all better off. Ignore the critics – we really are standing up for working people, 5 April), Keir Starmer rightly flags up the introduction of policies supporting the less well off in this society. However, I believe it was an ill-considered move to include the statement about increasing the state pension. As a pensioner I am not seeing a straightforward improvement and instead seeing a policy that is reducing the benefit of those increases.The triple lock, established by a Conservative–Liberal Democrat government in 2010, was designed to ensure that pensioners who had made tax and national insurance contributions throughout their working lives did not see their pension watered down
Votes for populist parties in May elections will put NHS at risk, Streeting says
Voters in May’s local and devolved elections risk putting the NHS in jeopardy if they vote for populist parties, Wes Streeting has said, as he sought to make the health service a key battleground.“The founding principles of the NHS are at greater threat than at any time since the NHS was founded in 1948,” the health secretary said.He warned that there was “a particular jeopardy” for the NHS in Wales, where Labour faces electoral wipeout at the hands of Reform UK and Plaid Cymru, with the latter pitching itself to voters as the best “stop Reform” option.Streeting called Labour’s progressive rivals “rookies” and said he “refuse[d] to believe that many people in Wales would vote for Reform if they knew where Nigel Farage stood on the NHS”.Streeting argued that the NHS in Scotland was weaker after almost two decades of SNP governance, while in England Labour-run councils would work more efficiently with Labour in government
Tories would reinstate two-child benefit cap to fund defence, says Badenoch
The Conservatives would reinstate the two-child benefit cap and use the savings for a wide-ranging spending splurge on defence in what Kemi Badenoch said would be “the biggest peacetime programme of rearmament in our country’s history”.Speaking at a defence conference in London, the Tory leader criticised the government for Britain’s “lack of readiness” for war, which has been exposed by recent world events.Badenoch said the UK needed to “reassert” itself as a global power and committed the Tories to “the largest net increase in British troops under any government since the second world war” if they returned to power at the next general election.The pledge would involve recruiting 6,000 full-time soldiers and 14,000 reservists. The Tories say they could raise £20bn towards the venture by reinstating the two-child benefit cap and reallocating money earmarked for net zero projects
Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, London WC2: ‘A rollicking list of cosy British joys’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants
Benjamina Ebuehi’s sweet and salty chocolate chip cookies recipe | The sweet spot
Gentleman’s Relish is toast after its maker axes the pungent anchovy spread
Cream sherry: a forgotten taste that’s worth rediscovering
From soups and greens to roots, how to survive the ‘hungry gap’
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for hazelnut and chocolate cake | A kitchen in Rome