Starmer urged to scrap ‘outdated’ law limiting power to stop new gambling premises

Campaigners say the ‘aim to permit’ rule had left councils powerless to refuse licence applications, despite local opposition. Photograph: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images

Keir Starmer has been urged to abolish an “outdated” rule that limits the power of communities to prevent bookmakers and 24-hour slot machine shops from opening on high streets.

In a letter to the prime minister, nearly 300 politicians and campaigners called for an end to the “aim to permit” policy, introduced when Tony Blair’s Labour government liberalised gambling laws in 2005.