An effort to block increased duty on spread betting in Britain has led to furious political in fighting among members of the British Parliament.
Conservatives are complaining that some Tory members were inspired to lobby for a lower betting tax on the increasingly popular form of betting after IG Index chief Stuart Wheeler made a £5 million donation to the Tories' election fund. Wheeler's donation was made in January, weeks before the mid-March budget announcement that included an increase of betting duty on spread betting. Duty on financial bets were raised from two percent to three percent, while the duty charged for other types of spread bets was increased to 10 percent, up from the 8 percent currently charged.
Tory MPs Howard Flight, Richard Ottaway and James Clappison tabled their amendment to the Finance Bill last Thursday. While other parliament members cried foul, the trio said that their amendment was spurred by a meeting with the Spread Betting Association, of which Wheeler's company is one of five members. The proposed amendment would cut the tax on financial spread betting by one percent and on sporting spread betting by two percent.
"These were perfectly legitimate amendments to table and all the necessary declarations of interest were made," a Tory Party spokesman told the BBC. "It is part of our argument that business taxes should be cut and certainly was not done at the request of Stuart Wheeler."
Yet former defense minister Peter Kilfoyle scoffed at their claims, telling the Sunday Times, "It is striking just how close to the hearts of the Tories the spread betting industry now appears to be."
A Labour spokesperson added, "It is outrageous that the Conservatives attempted to do this when they have just been give an enormous sum from within the spread betting industry."
Wheeler, whose donation was the largest donation ever made to a U.K. political party from a private donor, claimed that there were no strings attached to it.