Major accuses Government of “Lottery larceny”
Former Prime Minister John Major has accused the Government of “grand larceny” and of using lottery funds as a substitute for taxation.
Mr Major, who established the National Lottery nearly 10 years ago, said money intended for areas such as sport and heritage was being “siphoned away”.
“This is now being used as substituted government funding, that is not what it was intended for,” he told the BBC One’s Breakfast with Frost.
The Labour Government has, he claimed, abandoned the Lottery’s original aim not to use money to finance projects that should be paid for by the Treasury.
“I established the Lottery to provide a great deal of money for people to improve excellence in the arts and sport and opportunity”, he said.
Mr Major added: “At the time we did that everyone agreed that should be additional money, that it shouldn’t be siphoned away by the government, it shouldn’t diminish the modest sums the government then gave and it certainly shouldn’t be diminished away to be used by the government.”
“The Labour opposition agreed with that, they said, they demanded it, and I was happy to agree with it because I thought it was the right thing.”
But Mr Major accused Labour of backtracking on their pledge, legislating to take money away from the Lottery almost immediately after they shot to power in 1997.
“That is money that was not intended to be used for Government purposes. We agreed it, the then Labour opposition agreed it.”
“They changed their mind and taken this money and I think this is grand larceny.”
When the Lottery was originally established, a set proportion of generated earnings were earmarked for five main causes including the arts, sport, heritage and charities and the Millennium Fund.
According to Mr Major, however, now up to “half” of this money has been diverted to areas such health, education, the environment and the community.
Although he did recognise the centrality of such services in public life, he said they should nonetheless be “tax payer borne”.
As a result of the funds diversion, Mr Major warned that the arts, sport and heritage, receive proportionately less than they did before
Mr Major’s comments come just two weeks before the 10th anniversary of the National Lottery on 6th November.
