Fiona Twycross named UK gambling minister

Baroness Twycross has been handed the gambling brief at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

UK.- Fiona Twycross has been named UK gambling minister in a reshuffling of responsibilities at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) following Labour’s general election victory this month. The move gives greater importance to the gambling sector, assigning a dedicated minister to the sector.

Now a member of the House of Lords, Baroness Twycross sat on the London Assembly from 2012 to 2020 and was London’s first deputy mayor for fire and resilience under Sadiq Khan. Before entering politics, Twycross worked for Diabetes UK. She studied Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and has a PhD in contemporary Scandinavian literature. She later studied Public Policy and Management at Birkbeck, University of London.

The announcement represents an early shift in roles at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, creating a position specifically for gambling. Stephanie Peacock, the Labour MP for Barnsley South, had initially been named parliamentary under-secretary of state for sport, gambling and civil society and minister for equalities under the new Secretary of State Lisa Nandy. She had been the most likely candidate to take on responsibility for gambling policy having shadowed Stuart Andrew while Labour was in opposition.

However, Peacock has now been named minister for sport, media, civil society and youth, with gambling alone passing to Twycross. Meanwhile, the DCMS has been completed by Sir Chris Bryant MP, who has been named minister for creative industries, arts and tourism.