UK Prime Minister Theresa May has named Mims Davies as the new Minister for Sport and Civil Society. 

Davies, the Member of Parliament for Eastleigh since 2015, replaces Tracey Crouch, who resigned last week in protest at a perceived delay in the implementation in cutting maximum fixed odds betting terminal stakes to £2. 

Last week UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond announced that the stake cut would come into force from October 2019, disappointing campaigners who had called for the cut to come in April 2019. 

This ultimately prompted Crouch to resign, suggesting that members of the ruling Conservative Party had been persuaded to delay the cut by the betting and gaming industry. 

Hammond has since defended his decision at a Treasury Select Committee hearing, noting that the cut had to be introduced in an “orderly and sensible” manner. 

PoliticsHome reports Hammond as saying that the cut would see between 15,000 and 21,000 UK jobs eliminated, making it necessary to give the industry time to prepare for its introduction.