In a stinging rebuke she said Philip Hammond’s “unjustified” Budget decision to delay bringing in the new £2 maximum stake on FOBT betting machines would put two lives at risk every day.
Theresa May called her bluff last night by refusing to cave in to her demands to implement the changes in April rather than waiting until October. Scrapping the delay would cost the Treasury an estimated £60 million in lost gaming taxes on FOBTs.
And in a furious backlash Treasury sources said the delay had been approved by Ms Crouch’s own department before Monday’s Budget and it had been agreed that bookmakers needed more time to adjust to the change in order to protect 40,000 jobs.
One minister even accused Ms Crouch of trying to “blackmail the Prime Minister”.
But the PM still faces the prospect of a humiliating defeat on the issue later this month when Tory rebels are expected to revolt in a crunch Commons vote on the Budget measures.
Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith confirmed he would table an amendment to the Finance Bill in a fortnight in a bid to force a U-turn.
In a sign of the anger brewing on the Tory backbenches, he blasted: “We need to place humans above money.”
Ms Crouch, who also resigned as Minister for Loneliness, drew praise from across the political spectrum last night, with Boris Johnson saying she “deserves huge credit not just for her campaign but for sticking up for her principles.”
In an extraordinary resignation letter last night Ms Crouch accused the Government of caving in to Tory MPs with vested interests in the gambling industry.
She claimed the six-month delay in cutting the maximum stake from £100 to £2 would cost problem gamblers £1.6 billion and hit “our most deprived areas”.
And in a blistering attack on the Chancellor she accused him of putting government accounting over people’s lives by delaying the FOBT change to fill a funding black hole.
Ms Crouch wrote: “Unfortunately, implementation of these changes are now being delayed until October 2019 due to commitments made by others to those with registered interests.
"From the time of the announcement to reduce stakes and its implementation over £1.6bn will be lost on these machines, a significant amount of which will be in our most deprived areas including my own constituency.
“In addition, two people will tragically take their lives every day due to gambling related problems and for that reason as much as any other I believe this delay is unjustifiable.
“The alignment of the stake reduction with an increase in remote gaming duty was a condition put on by the Treasury to provide fiscal neutrality but is not a technical necessity, so this is no reason why implementation cannot come in sooner than October.”
But Mrs May dug in last night by insisting there had never been firm plans to implement the changes in April, telling Ms Crouch in a letter: “There has been no delay in bringing forward this important measure.”
Shadow Culture Secretary Tom Watson hailed Ms Crouch’s “courageous and principled decision,” adding: “She poured her heart and soul into a significant review of these destructive machines, faced down a systematic lobbying attempt by the gambling industry and took the right decision for those suffering from problem gambling, their families and communities.”
Foreign Affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said: “She was the best Sports Minister possible and her work on loneliness will help many. I admire her integrity even more knowing how much she loved her job.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called Tracey Crouch “principled and courageous”. He said: “May God bless her commitment to doing right.”
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