Rachel Reeves due to appear at gambling lobbyist’s event amid tax review

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been urged to cancel plans to be the guest of honour at an event hosted by the chief lobbyist of the gambling industry while the Treasury is in the midst of a review of taxes on the £12bn sector.

Reeves is slated to appear at a “private reception” for business leaders, organised by the corporate communications company Brunswick, at the forthcoming Labour party conference in Liverpool.

According to an invitation seen by the Guardian, the event will be hosted by Michael Dugher, the chair of the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC), who joined Brunswick as a part-time “senior adviser” last year.

Dugher, a former Labour MP who stepped down during Jeremy Corbyn’s stint as party leader, has since built a career as a pugnacious and sometimes controversial champion of Britain’s gambling industry.

He recently told the BGC’s members, including online casinos and bookmakers, of his efforts to talk the Treasury out of plans to increase taxes on the sector to help fund the public finances.

Gambling companies could save billions of pounds if Reeves ignores calls to raise duties on online gambling, including from the former prime minister Gordon Brown.

Reeves and Dugher have a longstanding political and personal friendship stretching back to their teenage years.

But MPs and a parliamentary standards campaigner said the chancellor should refuse his invitation, questioning the “very strange timing”.

The former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said the decision “raises real questions about the chancellor’s judgment and impartiality on this matter particularly when it is already widely known that she has taken both recent hospitality and donations from the sector”.

Reeves accepted three tickets to a musical worth £330, courtesy of the BGC in 2023 as well as £20,000 in donations from gambling executives while Labour was in opposition.

“The chancellor should think long and hard about whether she should appear at this event,” said Daisy Cooper MP, the Liberal Democrats’ Treasury spokesperson.

“Online gambling is one of the places where she should be looking to raise revenue for our public services. If she fails to do so at the budget she will have serious questions to answer over whether events like this one influenced her at all.

“To show she cares about taxpayers more than big gambling firms the chancellor should commit to raising taxes on online gambling giants ahead of the budget.”

Brunswick said Dugher’s role in the gambling industry was “completely separate” from his work for the public relations firm.

The debate over whether to raise taxes on gambling puts Dugher at the centre of a tug of war between leading Labour figures with whom he has longstanding ties.

Dugher was formerly a special adviser to Brown, who has called for taxes on online gambling to rise by as much as £3bn to help fund an end to the two-child benefit cap.

But Dugher also has a longstanding relationship with Reeves, with whom he claimed to have been “in touch” earlier this year during the BGC’s tax campaign, which included hosting a darts-themed event with the Paddy Power owner, Flutter.

Reeves said at the time that she had no formal meeting with the BGC and would not ever have discussed the tax changes.

The pair’s friendship stretches back to their teenage years, while they also once shared a parliamentary office in Westminster.

They will reunite for the Brunswick event on 28 September, weeks before Reeves announces her second budget as chancellor, at which any new taxes on online casinos could be revealed.

“Very strange timing for such an event,” said Tom Brake, a former Liberal Democrat MP and director of Unlock Democracy, a campaign group that advocates for improved parliamentary standards.

He said Reeves “should have politely declined” the invitation, adding that her acceptance was the sort of thing that could be considered by a new standards body, the ethics and integrity commission, due to be established next month.

A spokesperson for Brunswick said: “For many years Brunswick has hosted a reception at the Labour party conference which enables senior business leaders to engage with a number of ministers and MPs.

“Michael is a part-time senior adviser to Brunswick, and his work with us is completely separate from his other roles. He will be hosting the event jointly alongside partners from Brunswick’s public affairs team.”

The Guardian approached the chancellor for comment.