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The Guardian
7 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
It's easy to dismiss Robert Jenrick's fare-dodging stunt. But he understands something Keir Starmer doesn't
There is no shortage of reasons to dislike and dismiss Robert Jenrick. He is, after all, the former immigration minister who ordered that a centre for unaccompanied child asylum-seekers paint over its murals of cartoon characters, lest the child refugees got the wrong idea and thought they were being welcomed and had at last reached a place of safety. We certainly wouldn't want to take lectures on law-breaking from Jenrick, given that the former housing secretary acted unlawfully in rushing through approval for a development by the Conservative donor Richard Desmond, thereby saving the onetime porn publisher more than £40m. Nor would he be our go-to guy on matters of ripping off the public, not after it was revealed in 2020 that he claimed £100,000 in expenses for a third home. To say nothing of his service in a Boris Johnson administration that happily funnelled at least £1bn of taxpayers' money to assorted chancers lucky enough to have a friend in government, thereby securing for themselves a place in the VIP lane when it came to bidding for lucrative contracts making personal protective equipment or PPE. All of that makes it tempting to wave aside Jenrick's latest stunt, a video of himself challenging fare dodgers at a London Underground station, calling them 'mate' and demanding that they go back and pay for their journey. The transparency of his motive only strengthens that impulse. He wants Kemi Badenoch's job: we know that, because he tried to get it last time, when she defeated him. What's more, his pitch is that he will be the Tory leader who outflanks Reform UK on the right, nullifying that party's threat by offering voters the same brew of nationalist populism they can get from Nigel Farage. That's why he speaks so often, and so unbendingly, on immigration and why he includes an unexpected item in the list of menaces with which he closes the fare-dodging video: 'It's the same with bike theft, phone theft, tool theft, shoplifting, drugs in town centres, weird Turkish barber shops. It's all chipping away at society.' Weird Turkish barber shops. It leaps out, because it's the only thing in that list that isn't a crime. Ah, comes the response, but many of those places are suspected fronts for criminal activity, specifically money laundering. OK, but the same suspicion hovers over the 'American candy' stores that are similarly proliferating on the high street; why didn't Jenrick mention them? Could it be that 'American' doesn't quite have the same bite as 'Turkish'? Jenrick is an extremely online politician, one who will be familiar with the 'Yookay' meme, which suggests a Britain gone to the dogs: shabby, scuzzy, lawless and threatening – and that often likes to illustrate this descent into antisocial malaise with pictures of young Black and brown men. The 'Turkish' reference fits that narrative quite nicely. So there are good reasons for anti-racists and progressives to dismiss Jenrick and this latest bit of agitprop, seeing it as a cynical play either for Badenoch's job or, perhaps, Sadiq Khan's, given that the explicit target of the video is the London mayor. And yet, it would be unwise to do that too hastily. There is a lesson here for liberals, the Labour government and all those who want to see nationalist populism defeated. Because Jenrick is on to something here. Toxic messenger though he might be, his message will land. Put simply, people despise, with vehemence, what would officially be classified as petty crime and antisocial behaviour. Listen to those who have agreed with Jenrick on this latest point, including mothers speaking of pushing toddlers in buggies, only to be shoved aside by fare-dodgers seizing on the chance to slip through an open gate. But it goes deeper than physical intimidation. The resentment resides in the sense of unfairness: you paid, so why shouldn't they? You put out all your bins, so why should someone else get away with dumping rubbish on the street? The anger this generates is not solely about what they've not done, but about what you have done. Crime or antisocial conduct of this kind makes you feel as if you've been a mug, a sucker, for obeying the rules. That sentiment corrodes the rule of law and is politically poisonous, as Jenrick should know. He is out of government partly because of it. The anger at Johnson originated in his breaking of lockdown rules, but the depth of that anger was because he had, in the process, made so many feel foolish for having kept them. It is that fury which Jenrick is tapping into. 'But everyone else has to pay,' he says to one fare dodger, and it's the heart of the matter. Some of the hostile responses Jenrick has generated have upbraided him for making so much about a few quid here or there, when much greater larcenies are being committed. It's quite true that it would take many decades of committed barrier-jumping by today's fare-dodgers to steal a sum close to the £15.3bn fortune taken from taxpayers' pockets in Covid contracts deemed to 'carry a high risk of corruption'. But that's to skip past human psychology. We react to the crime we can see in front of us with more intensity than to one distant and abstract. Besides, there is at least a criminological argument, popularised as 'broken windows theory', to the view that if you deal swiftly with small crimes, you deter criminals from committing larger ones. The narrow lesson Keir Starmer might take from this is that he needs to act soon on fare evasion and the like. The broader, more pertinent one would be about politics itself. Sometimes politicians are at their most effective when they don't pass a law or spend money, but simply give voice to voters' anxieties. Donald Trump does it even now, acting as a commentator on patterns and trends in US society as if he were a pundit rather than the president. Farage does it all the time; Tony Blair used to do it, even from Downing Street. The current PM's technocratic instinct is to say nothing about a problem unless he has a plan or policy to fix it. But sometimes it's effective just to make an argument from the 'bully pulpit' you have as head of government. That's what leaders, as opposed to managers, do. It's a way of signalling to voters who you are, what you believe and, most important, whose side you're on. Starmer would be wise to do it more. It might mean a nod to the right, calling, say, for the return of a sense of shame to those guilty of selfish, antisocial behaviour, or a nod to the left, publicly naming and shaming, say, the water bosses who have been similarly selfish and antisocial by taking gargantuan bonuses even as they beg for bailouts. Awkward, I admit, to have to take lessons in politics from the likes of Robert Jenrick. But this one is useful. And, best of all, Starmer didn't even have to pay for it. Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist
Telegraph
14-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Richard Desmond faces £15m demand in High Court lottery row
Richard Desmond is facing a demand to put up a £15m bond as part of his acrimonious legal battle over the National Lottery. The Gambling Commission has asked the High Court to strike out Mr Desmond's case against it unless he pays the sum into the Court's bank account or puts his property interests on the line ahead of the trial. So-called 'Security for Costs Orders' require claimants – in this case Mr Desmond – to provide financial security to cover the defendant's legal costs if the claim fails. The instruments are used in instances where there is concern the claimant may not be able to afford the legal bill. If the billionaire fails to provide the necessary sum in cash, the Commission, together with lottery operator Allwyn, has requested a 'signed guarantee from Northern & Shell Properties Limited' – the entity that owns and manages Mr Desmond's property empire. Forcing the claimant to provide a signed guarantee, especially of a large fund like £15m, is rare, according to an industry source. A court hearing is scheduled for next week. It is the latest twist in an increasingly rancorous spat. Mr Desmond is suing the Gambling Commission for failing to award him the fourth National Lottery licence. The 10-year contract was instead handed to Allwyn, which is owned by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek. Mr Desmond has said he is seeking £200m in damages because he thinks the bidding process was unfair. The regulator estimates that the total legal bill for the case is likely to reach £30m, yet the last set of published accounts for Mr Desmond's Northern & Shell, which cover the period to the end of December 2023, show it sitting on cash of £20.8m. Sources close to Northern and Shell rejected the suggestion that Mr Desmond was unable to meet the legal costs of the case. 'There is more than enough for Northern and Shell to fight to the bitter end,' one source said. Another claimed that Mr Desmond's holding company had £300m of 'realisable assets' and dismissed the action as 'deflection' and an 'over-reaction'. The regulator was 'flying a kite', the same source said. A Commission spokesman said: 'We do not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.' Taxpayers to foot the bill If Mr Desmond wins the case, it is expected that taxpayers will foot the bill in one form or another. In 2022, Chris Philp, the then gambling minister, stated that the matter would be settled either with Treasury funds or from the money that the National Lottery sets aside for charitable causes. The Commission offered £10m of taxpayers' money to settle the case late last year but Mr Desmond rejected the proposal, setting the stage for a High Court showdown in the Autumn. Last week, the High Court ruled that Mr Desmond can use a cache of documents mistakenly handed over to his lawyers by the Commission's legal team at Hogan Lovells. Sa'ad Hossain KC, representing Northern & Shell, described the scale of the apparent error as 'unprecedented' and akin to a 'bombshell'. Allwyn, meanwhile, has suffered a series of setbacks since taking control of the lottery last year amid a costly and complex IT overhaul. The lottery is on course to generate around £1.6bn in donations for charitable causes in its maiden year under Allwyn, more than £2bn short of where returns were expected to be.
The Guardian
07-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Regulator makes ‘unpredecented' blunder in legal battle over UK lottery
The gambling regulator has accidentally handed over more than 4,000 sensitive documents to lawyers acting for the media tycoon Richard Desmond, in an 'unprecedented' blunder during its legal battle over the £6.4bn national lottery contract, the Guardian understands. Northern & Shell (N&S), the investment group owned by Desmond, is suing the Gambling Commission for £200m in damages over its handling of the lottery licence award process. The regulator awarded the 10-year lottery licence to the Czech-owned operator Allwyn in 2022, rejecting a bid from the incumbent, Camelot, and a third proposal from Desmond, who is the former owner of the Daily Express and a range of pornographic publications. A trial is due to go ahead in October at the high court, despite warnings from the commission that any resulting payout to N&S may have to be funded from lottery money allocated to good causes. N&S rejected a settlement with the commission worth up to £10m in December last year, the Guardian has previously revealed. On Wednesday, during a procedural hearing, it emerged that the commission had made what one insider described as a 'huge' error during pre-trial disclosure, the process during which the two factions hand over relevant information to one another. The commission, which is represented by the London law firm Hogan Lovells, is understood to have accidentally handed over more than 4,000 sensitive documents about the lottery award process to lawyers for N&S. The regulator wants the court to order the return of some of the documents but is understood to be unsure exactly which files were handed over in error and has been trying to figure this out since before Christmas. The commission asked for a six-week extension to go through this process but Mrs Justice Jefford granted them until next week. She described the error as 'extraordinary' and 'unprecedented' and ruled that the regulator must pay N&S's costs incurred as a result of the hearing. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion There is no guarantee the judge will rule that the documents should be handed back or redacted. A new hearing on the matter is scheduled for early March. The Gambling Commission and Hogan Lovells said they could not comment on an open case. N&S declined to comment. The award of the fourth national lottery licence wrested control from Camelot for the first time since the inception of the weekly draw in 1994.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
National Lottery chiefs face grilling by MPs over charity shortfall
Senior MPs are preparing to grill bosses at the Czech-owned operator of the National Lottery as part of a planned inquiry expected to delve into its faltering performance. It is understood that representatives of Allwyn, which is owned by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek, are set to be called for evidence by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee as concerns grow about its ability to fulfil ambitious pledges on charitable donations. The select committee's scrutiny comes amid further setbacks over Allwyn's running of the lottery, raising fresh questions about the Gambling Commission's decision to hand the company oversight of a vital source of charitable funding. It comes after Allwyn was hit by yet more delays to a complex IT upgrade that it says is critical to plans to implement a raft of improvements to the lottery's proposition, including the introduction of new games that it claims will boost sales. The changes were at the heart of a bold promise to double handouts to what the lottery calls 'good causes', from £17.9bn under predecessor Camelot to £38bn over the course of the decade-long licence. The technology transfer was supposed to be in place when Allwyn took over the running of the lottery in February last year but following repeated hold-ups, it may not be ready until February 2026 – the latest point at which it can be delivered under the terms of the licence. While no date has been fixed for Allwyn executives to appear before the committee, a Whitehall source indicated they could be called in the spring. However, the timetable could be pushed back as a result of ongoing legal action that rival bidder Richard Desmond has launched against the Gambling Commission over his failed bid. The two sides are set for a High Court showdown in October unless an out-of-court settlement can be reached. The latest setbacks will leave Allwyn facing a growing battle to meet the sales projections that supported its bid. At the time that Allwyn was selected to take over, it was reported that the contract would generate turnover 'of around £10bn a year'. However, less than 18 months later, the Gambling Commission had slashed its forecasts to between £7.9bn and £7.8bn for the first year amid dwindling sales of prize draws and scratch cards. During its final year under Camelot, which had held the licence for three decades, the National Lottery notched up revenue of £8.2bn. Sources warn that a delay of that length could mean the introduction of any new games is also pushed back. Plans to halve ticket prices to £1 have yet to come to fruition, with no commitment from the company about whether the move will go ahead at all. Some industry figures say the initiative doesn't make financial sense. 'All it means is you have to sell double the tickets just to stand still,' one said. An Allwyn spokesman said: 'Our projections for 2025 remain on track and we remain resolutely focused and confident that our plans will deliver on our ambition to double returns to good causes from £30m a week to £60m a week by the end of the fourth licence.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
