POLITICS

Horse-race Tory’s lobbying revealed

Documents expose efforts by the MP Philip Davies, who had enjoyed free hospitality at events
The horse of the Tory MP Philip Davies, far right, won a prize at the Middleton Hunt in 2012
The horse of the Tory MP Philip Davies, far right, won a prize at the Middleton Hunt in 2012
JOHN GROSSICK

A Tory MP lobbied cabinet ministers on behalf of the horse-racing industry having previously received free tickets to race days with a value of £25,000 from racing and gambling firms, documents show.

Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, lobbied Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and Oliver Dowden when he was culture secretary, by forwarding correspondence from racing organisations advocating policy changes that would directly benefit the industries in 2020.

The documents, obtained by The Times under freedom of information laws, detail Davies’s previously unknown lobbying efforts.

The gambling and racing industries are closely linked, with betting on the races among the biggest sources of income for betting firms. Over-the-counter and remote racing bets yielded £1.4 billion for gambling companies in the year before the pandemic.

MPs came