Chancellor urged to raise taxes on gambling firms

RACHEL Reeves is under growing pressure to raise taxes on gambling firms to cover the cost of lifting the two-child benefit cap.

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves

More than 100 Labour MPs have signed a letter to the Chancellor as she prepares for the autumn Budget, urging her to scrap the limit long blamed for keeping children in poverty.

This could be paid for with a “targeted levy on harmful online gambling products”, which would “support the government's manifesto pledge to reduce gambling-related harm and enable vital action to alleviate child poverty”, the MPs wrote.

They argued that the UK's effective tax rate on remote gambling “is significantly lower than in many comparable jurisdictions”.