Campaign Update

Following the considerable activity around Racing’s Cancelled Day (September 10), which was covered in our previous blog, our focus has switched to engaging with the Government on political and official channels while also maintaining a steady drumbeat of media activity.

Since the end of the Party Conference season, meetings with influential MPs and officials have intensified. They will continue up to the Budget on November 26 as we seek to make the Government aware of the risks it faces – political, economic, social and cultural – if it presses ahead with its proposed damaging tax hike. We are also working closely with the members of the APPG for Racing and Bloodstock, to ensure that racing’s voice is heard by the decision makers in Treasury.

Shadow Treasury Minister James Wild and his wife Baroness Evans of Bowes Park showed their support for the #AxeTheRacingTax campaign at Fakenham Racecourse last week. Pictured alongside Fakenham’s David Hunter and BHA’s Greg Swift. Credit: leaderboardphotography.com

The media element of the campaign is ongoing with pieces continuing to run around #AxeTheRacingTax in publications like the FT, The Times and on Reuters newswire. The BHA and other industry colleagues will work to deliver further mainstream media coverage over the next six weeks that highlights the potential impact of gambling tax hikes on British racing. This will include broadcast and print plus a suite of products across social media.

At the same time a media campaign will run across the online platforms that we know are the most likely to be read by all MPs.

We’ve been clear that racing faces a triple whammy of threats to our financial future. The impact of affordability checks and the longer-term need to resolve issues around the Horseracing Betting Levy remain critical to our wider lobbying effort, but for now our overwhelming focus ahead of the budget is opposing the proposed tax hike that would have devastating consequences for individuals and businesses across racing and breeding.

Party Conference Reflections

Having returned for a few short weeks following summer recess, MPs left Westminster on September 16 for Party Conference season.

BHA representatives attended the major party conferences — Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK, attending fringe events, speeches and receptions, and meeting MPs and political advisers.

While Conference season is always a moment to update MPs and advisers about British racing’s challenges and the ways in which Government and opposition parties can support our industry, this year delivering that message was more important than ever.

From our conversations in Birmingham, Bournemouth, Liverpool and Manchester, it was clear that the #AxeTheRacingTax campaign has caught the attention of political stakeholders – from MPs and party members to advisers and even fellow lobbyists.

BHA Director of Communication and Corporate Affairs Greg Swift raises racing’s concerns about the Treasury’s planned tax hike at a Labour Society for Sport event at the Party’s Conference in Liverpool last month.

The three major opposition parties readily expressed support for the campaign. The Lib Dems have adopted a policy calling for tax rises for online gaming products as opposed to sports betting, with Cheltenham MP and former DCMS Spokesperson Max Wilkinson explicitly referencing the need to protect racing during his proposing speech.

Shadow Gambling Minister Louie French MP continues to be very supportive, mentioning #AxeTheRacingTax on the main stage of Tory conference, and lead on the financial impact on racing and other sports of gambling tax rises at DCMS Orals on Thursday.

Lastly, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage expressed opposition to tax harmonisation at Goodwood earlier this Summer, and the party themselves posted in support of Racing’s Cancelled Day.

Of course, while consensus of the opposition parties is welcome and has helped build the case against the Government’s proposals to harmonise online gambling taxes, it is the Labour Government which is charged with delivering a Budget against an increasingly challenging fiscal backdrop.

One thing that does seem certain is that we are moving at a faster pace than the October 2027 implementation initially set out in HMT’s Tax Treatment of Remote Gambling consultation document.

From comments made by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP at Labour conference, we know that gambling companies will be asked to “pay their fair share of taxes”. Unusually ahead of a Budget – but against a backdrop of mounting grassroots and backbench pressure – she went as far as to tell ITV News that “there is a case for gambling firms to pay more”.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP. Picture by Kirsty O’Connor / Treasury

The question is, which ones and to what level?

It was encouraging to see 101 Labour MPs and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown call for the protection of British horseracing while the Treasury is actively working on the Budget. Think tanks the Social Market Foundation, IPPR and Demos have come to the same conclusion that British racing needs its own unique treatment to avoid job losses in the rural economy and a financial hit that will potentially devastate the sport.

At a well-attended SMF fringe meeting on the Monday of the Labour Conference, it was notable how many times the panellists made explicit reference for the need to carve horse racing out of any increases in gambling duties.

There are still risks in other areas of the gambling taxation landscape for British racing and as Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross rightly pointed out at the same SMF fringe, this issue is complex, and HMT would be wise to find a “safe level” of taxation to avoid growing a black market that’s becoming a growing threat to the sport’s financial model.

Budget speculation will dominate the British political agenda over the next six weeks. The BHA will continue to publicly call for the Chancellor to support British Racing in the Budget as part of the Axe The Racing tax campaign, and we encourage all those who work and follow the sport to play their part in these crucial final weeks.

A reminder of how you yourself can play your part is below:

How You Can Help

• Write to your MP using our template letter
• Follow the BHA on social media and share our campaign posts using #AxeTheRacingTax

By Jack Barton, BHA Policy & Advocacy Manager