Labour hands gambling brief to Baroness Twycross in DCMS reshuffle
Labour peer to oversee sector instead of Stephanie Peacock after a single mention of gamblers during her time in the House of Lords
The Labour government has given the gambling brief to Baroness Twycross in a shakeup at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Baroness Twycross, or Fiona Ruth Twycross, was named parliamentary under-secretary of state in the DCMS this week and has now been officially handed gambling as her key oversight.
The sector had been assumed to be under the watch of Stephanie Peacock, who was also named as parliamentary under-secretary of state for the department on 9 July.
Peacock, who will now serve as minister for sport, media, civil society and youth, held the gambling brief during her time in the shadow cabinet.
In fact, Peacock had spoken at this year’s Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) AGM and was welcomed into government by BGC CEO Michael Dugher.
Twycross, who has sat in the House of Lords as a Labour peer since November 2022, will be responsible for DCMS business in the House of Lords. She was also made a government whip on 11 July.
The new gambling minister previously served in the London Assembly and as deputy mayor for fire and resilience in London.
According to TheyWorkForYou, Baroness Twycross has made one single spoken reference to gambling during her time in the House of Lords.
That came during a debate in January around financial education, when Baroness Twycross made reference to a Centre for Social Justice paper in which it claimed 55,000 11 to 16-year-olds in England could be classed as problem gambling.
During the debate, she said: “I note an important point made in a paper by the Centre for Social Justice on the number of children who are problem gamblers. Shockingly, according to the National Audit Office, there are 55,000 problem gamblers aged 11 to 16 in England, with a further 85,000 in this age group at risk.
“I apologise for getting that in at the end, because no one else had raised it, but I wonder how the government are looking to use financial education to address what seems to be a serious issue, not least in relation to online financial safety. I look forward to hearing the minister’s response.”
The data from the National Audit Office, which derives from a 2021 paper, was followed up by Gambling Commission data in 2023 which put the problem gambling rate for the age group, including 17-year-olds, at 0.7%. This was based on a youth-adapted problem gambling screening test.
According to the UK parliament website, she has not made a written contribution on the sector in almost two years of being in the upper chamber.
Baroness Twycross takes up the post after Labour’s general election manifesto included just 37 words on gambling reform, while the industry went unmentioned in the King’s Speech earlier this month.