Climbdown over gaming machines
FOUR more House of Fraser stores are set to close after new owners Sports Direct failed to reach an agreement with the landlord.
The sites in Norwich, Nottingham, Lakeside in Essex and Metrocentre in Gateshead, will face closure in the new year.
The landlord of the sites is London-listed Intu, which is in the midst of a potential sale to a group of investors. Sports Direct is now in consultation with staff at the affected stores. AN animatronic orangutan has taken to the streets of London as part of a campaign to highlight how rainforest destruction threatens the ape.
The orangutan was seen clinging to a Christmas tree in Coin Street and walking the streets as part of supermarket Iceland’s campaign to offer shoppers a festive season without palm oil in their food.
The ape was designed and built by special effects artists and is controlled remotely and by a specialist puppeteer.
Last week, regulators banned Iceland’s Christmas advert from TV screens for being too political – a move THE Government has made an embarrassing U-turn over the timing of a cut to maximum stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) in the face of a Commons revolt.
A reduction in the top wager from £100 to just £2 to combat problem gambling will now come into force in April, after more than 70 MPs set out to sabotage Treasury plans to push it back to October.
That delay sparked the resignation of sports minister Tracey Crouch as well as condemnation from MPs who believed that the cut was vital to protect vulnerable people and families.
The change was announced in a written statement to MPs by Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright yesterday afternoon.
Ms Crouch, who pushed a gambling review including the cut through the Commons last May, said: “I’m really pleased that common sense has prevailed.
“It is clear that these machines cause significant harm and I was sorry that the Government took the initial decision to delay the implementation of the reduction of stakes, but I am delighted that they are now bringing it forward to April.” that has prompted 600,000 people to sign a petition for it to be allowed to be shown.
The commercial, voiced by actress Emma Thompson and originally produced by Greenpeace, features a cartoon baby orangutan – “Rang-tan” – warning its rainforest home is being cleared for palm oil
Asked if she would like to return to Government, Ms Crouch said: “There isn’t a vacancy. That’s been filled. So, I will just get on and do what I’m going to do.”
An impact assessment published in May last year suggested the new curb should be implemented within nine to 12 months.
But Chancellor Philip Hammond moved it to October in last month’s budget, telling the Treasury Committee last week that following engagement with the gaming industry, it would be a “sensible” date.
A campaign co-led by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith but with cross-party support on Monday tabled amendments to plantations. Since it was banned it has had more than 12 million views on Facebook, the retailer said.
The company pledged in April to take palm oil out of 130 food lines by the end of 2018, a move which it said would reduce demand by more than 500 tonnes per year. finance legislation to force ministers to make the change in April.
The Government was widely expected to lose when the amendments came up for debate next week.
Mr Duncan Smith raised the issue with a question at PMQs, after meeting Mrs May earlier in Downing Street.
He told her he had been “enormously proud” that the Government had agreed to act on FOBTs which have “caused endless harm (and) terrible damage to families”.
Mrs May told him an announcement was coming, adding: “I know he has campaigned on this issue with a passion because, as he said, this question of the maximum stakes for FOBTs is one which does have an impact on vulnerable people as well as their families and loved ones.”
Shadow culture secretary Tom Watson attacked the “disastrous political judgment” shown by the Culture Secretary and Chancellor.
He said: “It’s very sad that it took an honourable resignation of a good minister and a cross-party revolt to achieve the blindingly obvious and necessary reforms to fixed-odds betting terminals.”