Lord Donoughue
Main Page: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Lord Donoughue (Lab)
My Lords, at a canter, I wish to congratulate the noble Viscount, Lord Astor, on raising this important issue and to declare my interest, as in the register, as chairman of the Starting Price Regulatory Commission and of the report on the future funding of racing which concluded that we should replace the levy, but that it would provoke problems and legal challenges.
Fortunately, much progress has since been made and I welcome the new funding arrangement. I trust that it will maintain the historic balance between the genuine financial needs of the racing industry and the capacity of bookmakers to pay, noting that they are under more pressure than at any time in my lifetime, and that we will resolve any legal challenges and the familiar problem of European Union state aid.
Of course, we might avoid many of these problems if we take the free market approach so lucidly expressed by my noble friend Lord Lipsey. His experience is greater than that of most Members in this House. I have worked with him as a colleague and friend for 40 years, and I usually take his advice and recommend his racing tips, as at Exeter tomorrow. On this issue, I will not tangle with his arguments but will simply say that I am reluctant to ignore the guaranteed financial aid for the sport of racing, which I love. I am confident that that money will eventually go to very capable hands in the modern racing industry with its modern leaders—I have in mind people such as Nick Rust and Simon Bazalgette—among a new breed of professionals running the racing industry so well today. I have confidence in them.
In proposing this extension and simplification of the levy, it is now most important that the DCMS meets the April 2017 deadline to deliver its levy solution. That tired departmental horse needs a heavy whip over the final furlong to the winning post. It is much more practical to resolve the offshore tax problem than to pursue the complex journey of the original racing right, which I, too, never understood. We may face difficult but familiar legal challenges, including European state aid and negotiating a tax rate that bookmakers can afford, but I trust that they can be overcome, together with all the very pertinent questions raised by the noble Viscount, Lord Astor, so that racing can benefit and the often maligned bookmakers can continue to flourish so that each can benefit when both prosper.