Shadow Levelling Up Minister received more than £2,500 in gifts from gambling industry
Alex Norris benefited from four donations since June 2021 as BGC champions its own Levelling Up agenda across the UK
Labour’s shadow Levelling Up Minister has received gifts worth £2,674.60 from the gambling industry in the last 12 months as the Betting and Gaming Council has pledged to generate 15,000 tech jobs as part of its Levelling Up agenda.
Alex Norris, MP for Nottingham North, has served as shadow Minister for Levelling Up since December 2021.
Norris has received four gifts within the last year, although three of those were when he was a backbencher.
The most recent came from Sky Betting & Gaming, under the donor name Hestview Limited, for two tickets to the Championship play-off final in May worth £700.
Norris also received a hospitality ticket worth £1,537.60 from Gamesys during the Euro 2020 tournament for an England match.
Directly from the BGC, Norris has been the beneficiary of a meal worth upwards of £100 and two tickets for a Nottingham Forest game worth £334.50.
All of the gifts have been declared in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing.
Earlier this month, Norris was hosted by the BGC to talk over a Purpose Coalition report, which establishes ways in which organisations can assess Levelling Up goals.
As part of the BGC’s plan, it is set to generate 15,000 tech jobs, with 1,500 based in the West Midlands alone.
The government minister for Levelling Up, Michael Gove, has received no gifts or donations from the gambling industry.
The donations follow a long list of politicians receiving gifts from the industry in the run up and during the review into the Gambling Act 2005.
In November 2021, it was revealed 28 MPs had benefited from a total of £225,000 in wages and gifts from the gambling industry since August 2020.
Earlier this month, Iain Duncan Smith lambasted fellow MPs for their close relationships with the industry in a Westminster Hall debate.
Duncan Smith said: “In a previous debate, three [MPs], who are not here today, read out speeches written by bet365, and I did not think that that did this place any good at all.
“In truth, we are here for our judgement, not for somebody else’s judgement. I have no objection to [MPs] standing up for the gambling industry and defending it; that is absolutely right and exactly what this place is all about.
“However, I do object to the fact that we sometimes think that we have to just say what the industry wants us to say – we do not,” he added.