among the riders who ditched the racecourse for the day<\/a>.<\/p>\nBritish Horseracing Authority boss Brant Dunshea, said: \u201cWe\u2019re here at Parliament Square. It\u2019s amazing, we\u2019ve got participants from all over the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had groups of jockeys in racing silks supporting our cause.<\/p>\n
![\"Model](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_British-Racing-Holds-First-Ever-Strike-And-Protest-Over-Government-Plans-For-Tax-Increases.jpg\")
Model race horse with the statement ‘Axe the racing tax’ is displayed outside the Houses of Parliament(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cA message needs to be given loud and clear that we say no to the racing tax hike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tory MP Louie French, who was also at the protest, said the raid would \u201chammer horseracing\u201d and do \u201csignificant damage to the sport that we all love\u201d.<\/p>\n
Horseracing bigwigs later piled into the QEII conference centre to lobby MPs and try to convince them to axe the plans.<\/p>\n
Treasury chiefs want to bring online betting duties into one single rate tax band meaning a 15% levy paid by bookmakers on racing would align with online games of chance – currently 21%.<\/p>\n
The BHA warned the move would put 2,752 jobs at risk in the first year, and its chair Lord Allen branded it an \u201cexistential threat for our sport\u201d.<\/p>\n
But the government denied the move is a tax grab and insisted it is bringing the \u201ctreatment of online betting in line with other forms of online gambling to cut down bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trainer William Haggas said he is \u201calarmed\u201d by the proposals and warned they could be \u201cutterly devastating\u201d for communities built around the sport, for instance Newmarket.<\/p>\n
Horseracing fan Mike McCafferty added: \u201cRacing is already feeling the pinch and dying, taxing it further will speed up the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Axe the tax attack![\"Daily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_Jockey-Strike.jpg\")
Daily Star’s Meg Jorsh dressed up to join them(Image: Jeremy Selwyn)<\/p>\n
Even in the chaos of London\u2019s Parliament Square, the jockeys are hard to ignore.<\/p>\n
Eight of Britain\u2019s brightest young talents, dressed in striking white silks, stand together to defend their sport.<\/p>\n
And of course, your Daily Star is here to support their Axe The Racing Tax campaign.<\/p>\n
The jockeys pose just feet from the Houses of Parliament. Meanwhile, an LED billboard urges politicians to help save Britain\u2019s second most popular sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Daily Star joined striking jockeys as the historic protest came as four scheduled meetings – at Lingfield…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[8029,3004,101,56,54,55,2915],"class_list":{"0":"post-129525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-horse-racing","9":"tag-racing","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom","14":"tag-westminster"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Jockey's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1_Jockey-Strike.jpg\")
Jockeys go on strike at Parliament Square yesterday (September 10)(Image: Jeremy Selwyn)<\/p>\n