Former British prime minister Tony Blair has criticised his successor Gordon Brown's decision to scrap the UK super casino plans.
In his autobiography, A Journey, Blair said that the Brown administration’s u-turn on the Manchester super casino was brought about following pressure from religious groups and the media.
"It was the worst form of Puritanism - partisan as well as ineffectual," Blair says in the book. "So people can gamble to their hearts’ content and their wallets’ limit, but not in a brand-new town complex with a casino, entertainment centre, sports facilities and shops."
Graham Stringer, MP for Manchester Blackley, told the Manchester Evening News that Brown’s decision to scrap the plans was "a combination of weakness and cowardice" that ultimately cost the city thousands of new jobs.
