Green MP: Labour caricatures working-class people over greyhound racing

A picture


Labour is “offensively caricaturing” working-class people by saying they do not want a greyhound racing ban in England, the Green party MP Hannah Spencer has said.The sport has traditionally been associated with working-class culture and has historically been popular in so-called red wall areas, which Labour insiders suggest is part of the reason why there are no plans for England to follow bans announced last month in Scotland and Wales.The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said in parliament on Thursday that the gambling industry “brings joy to a lot of people”.She said: “The industry as a whole brings positive benefits to the United Kingdom.”Spencer, who won the Gorton and Denton byelection in February and has four rescue greyhounds, said: “Lisa Nandy just continuously offends people by saying that working-class people don’t care about dogs or each other.

It is a caricature and it is very offensive.”She added: “I get offended when I hear the argument made that it is working class.Working-class people are fed up with gambling companies being able to wreak havoc in people’s lives.”Sources close to Nandy rejected the notion that she believed working-class people did not care about dogs or other working-class people.Nandy recently said: “We have absolutely no plans whatsoever to ban greyhound racing.

We appreciate the joy that it brings to many, many people in our country and the economic contribution that it makes.”The sport can cause injury and death to dogs, and many survivors are passed to animal charities after their racing days are done.These charities then have the difficult task of rehoming the large, often anxious dogs, which are not used to life in a family home.Between 2018 and 2023, 2,700 greyhounds died and more than 26,500 injuries to greyhounds were recorded.Spencer’s greyhounds are why she got into politics.

She campaigned to close the Belle Vue racetrack near where she lived in Manchester, where one of her dogs, Olive, had raced.“When I got her, she was really broken,” Spencer said.“I rehomed a greyhound called Judy who is 11 and for around a decade she was kept in a kennel and just used for breeding.My first greyhound, Graham, was terrified of everything outside because he’d been kept in a shed and had never really left.He never got over his anxiety despite my best efforts over many years.

There were many things which terrified him.”Labour has close ties to the gambling industry, taking hundreds of thousands of pound in donations during the general election campaign.Senior figures have been invited to glitzy events held by betting lobbyists.Spencer said: “That is what opened my eyes to Labour, how lobbied and biased they are.Labour MPs will frequently accept really expensive hospitality packages from gambling companies.

Why would they go for a jolly and go and see a concert at Wembley paid for by the misery of gambling addicts?”The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, was recently accused in the Sun of “extreme madness” after a tweet from was unearthed in which he suggested he wanted horse racing banned.But Spencer thinks there should be a conversation about banning horse racing, particularly after the deaths of two horses at this year’s Grand National.She said: “A conversation needs to be had about horse racing.We all saw those awful pictures of a horse that had been raced to death to make money for gambling companies.That conversation is coming.

Those conversations are shifting,People are telling me they don’t think horse racing is acceptable either,”Matt Zarb-Cousin, a co-founder of Gamban, an app that helps people with gambling addictions, said: “The gambling lobby in Westminster has had successive governments believing they somehow speak for the working class while their sector exploits and extracts from it,To make the assumption ordinary working people somehow don’t care about the welfare of dogs is a form of class prejudice,”Mark Moisley, the commercial director of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, said: “Greyhound racing is enshrined in British culture and contributes £164m a year to the economy, employs 5,400 people, and remains one of the top 10 spectator sports in the UK – and our priority is to ensure this continues, with the welfare of greyhounds at the heart of this.

recentSee all
A picture

Reeves rightly fears the bond market, but she can afford to ditch one unhelpful rule | Phillip Inman

There is a good reason Rachel Reeves is wary of the dreaded bond market vigilantes. Anyone who inherits a mountain of debt and then finds out that many of the lenders act like sharks is right to be concerned.Most of the participants in financial markets are not actively predatory. They swim in a sea of money with only one rule, to stick together, hoovering up as much profit as they can at the lowest risk.Bond vigilantes, on the other hand, are traders with a remit to pursue juicy prey, even if it means going hungry for a while

A picture

As Franco Manca scales back, is the air going out of the sourdough pizza craze?

When Franco Manca first opened in south London’s Brixton Market in 2008, its competitively priced sourdough pizzas served in a sophisticated setting quickly drew a buzz.“It was all the rage,” says food blogger Gerry del Guercio of BiteTwice, who visited in the early days and recalls the novelty of seeing queues forming for pizza in London. “It was just desperately cool, and everyone wanted to try.”At a time when the high street was largely dominated by US chains such as Pizza Hut and Domino’s, dishing up more standard fast food pizzas, the business had a unique selling point for the UK market – slow-fermented, chewy sourdough bases.The Naples-originated style of pizza went on to win the hearts of British diners, with its champion Franco Manca expanding into a nationwide chain with more than 70 sites

A picture

How a fiery attack on Sam Altman’s home unfolded

In the early hours of 10 April, a man approached the gate of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s house in San Francisco and hurled a molotov cocktail at the building before fleeing. The suspect, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama, was arrested less than two hours later while allegedly attempting to break into the headquarters of OpenAI with a jug of kerosene, a lighter and an anti-AI manifesto.Federal and California state authorities have charged Moreno-Gama with a range of crimes including attempted arson and attempted murder. His parents issued a statement this week saying that their son had recently suffered a mental health crisis. Moreno-Gama, who has not yet entered a plea, faces up to life in prison if convicted

A picture

Kenyan firm sacks more than 1,000 workers after losing Meta contract

More than 1,000 low-paid workers in Kenya have been abruptly sacked by an outsourcing company contracted by Meta, in what activists said was a shocking move exposing the precariousness of tech jobs in the global south.Sama, a company based in Nairobi to which Meta outsourced content moderation and AI training work, announced on Thursday that the workers were being laid off after Meta terminated a contract.Last month reports said some Kenyan workers involved in data annotation were asked to view content filmed using Meta’s AI smart glasses showing wearers using the toilet or having sex.The sacked workers, many involved in AI training, have been given six days’ notice, according to the Oversight Lab, an organisation that advocates for fair regulation and deployment of technology across Africa. It said it was advising the workers on legal options

A picture

Hampshire v Somerset, Warwickshire v Essex, and more: county cricket – live

Dark skies, covers on. The forecast predicts showers moving away so we might get more play this evening.Gloucs are almost into the Lancs tail now as Matt Taylor picks up a fourth – George Balderson for a thoughtful 19-ball- duck. Paul Coughlin, who had such a great match last week at OT, joins Hurst (8 not out). Lancs 174-7, lead Gloucs by 38

A picture

Scotland 7-84 England: Women’s Six Nations rugby union – as it happened

Sarah Rendell has filed her report in a flash! Just like a speeding Kildunne down the left wing.Murrayfield’s foundations were ‘rocked” as Sarah put it. Fair play. That felt like a seismic shellacking.Thanks for keeping me company