Starmer signals a bonfire of the quangos - but the Gambling Commission is set to avoid going up in smoke

It may have escaped the attention of those whose focus was on events in Gloucestershire, but prime minister Keir Starmer last week reiterated his promise to cut back on regulation. He said that for too long government had hidden behind regulators, "deferring decisions and allowing regulations to bloat and block meaningful growth in this country".

However, no doubt to the disappointment of its critics, it would seem unlikely the Gambling Commission will be going up in smoke as part of a new bonfire of the quangos. Neither was the commission one of the regulators written to by the government before Christmas asking them to identify pro-growth proposals which could be made this year. 

Indeed, while the government is promising to cut regulators on one hand, on the other it is adopting the previous government's plans to introduce a new football regulator.