Mayoral candidates promise churches they’ll crack down on predatory betting shops

Zac Goldsmith, Conservative candidate for London mayor, pledged he would back moves for more control over high streets, including regulation to control the proliferation of betting shops in the capital.

Speaking to hundreds of Christians yesterday evening at church hustings organised by the Evangelical Alliance and Churches Together in South London, he said he supported new powers for councils to stop betting shops opening up and admitted to voting against his government on the issue.

The failed amendment would have enabled local authorities to limit the amount people could bet on fixed-odds betting terminals.

But earlier in the year Goldsmith was criticised for accepting donations to his campaign from gambling industry lobbyists.

At the hustings - hosted at Kensington Temple Pentecostal church in Notting Hill - there was consensus among the candidates about the harmful nature of betting shops and payday lenders, which the politicians said were a blight on local high streets.

Caroline Pidgeon, standing for the Liberal Democrats, noted that when in coalition government, her party had made it harder for betting shops to open new branches.

Sadiq Khan, Labour candidate, commented: “You don’t see these betting shops in the more affluent areas of London and there’s a reason why.”

He went on to talk about his own objection to licensing betting shops in his Tooting constituency, saying: “I supported moves to limit the amounts and to increase the powers to stop them opening and I was disappointed they didn’t go through.”

Speaking more broadly about regenerating high streets, Khan said: “I enjoy my cheeky Nandos but there’s a time and a place for fast food chicken shops. What we’ve got to do is make sure if the market isn’t working - and the market isn’t working - not to be afraid to interfere in the market, and as mayor I would interfere with this laissez-faire approach to our high streets to stop what is a scourge on the most vulnerable in London.”

Along with Sian Berry standing for the Green Party and UKIP’s London assembly candidate David Kurten, the candidates addressed a wide range of subjects of concern to Christians in the capital, from housing and homelessness to protecting London from terrorism.

Addressing the candidates at the start of the event, the Rt Rev Graham Tomlin, Bishop of Kensington, told the candidates the Church of England had three times as many outlets in the capital as Starbucks.

He went on to say that churchgoers punch above their weight by providng over a million hours of volunteer time.

Revd Yemi Adedeji from the Evangelical Alliance warned the candidates that to ignore the Christian vote was to “lose the election”.