Former Labour MP and betting industry champion Brian Walden dies aged 86

Brian Walden, the TV political interviewer and former Labour MP, who has died at the age of 86, championed the betting industry in the Commons to the point that opponents dubbed him "the bookies' runner".

Walden died at his home in St Peter Port, Guernsey, following complications from emphysema.

He was especially prominent in debates on the Horserace Totalisator and Betting Levy Boards Bill in 1972, which sought to rescue the Tote from financial collapse by extending its range of betting.

Although expressing himself in favour of the Tote as an alternative form of betting, he spoke strongly against plans to allow the pool operator to offer fixed odds, and also counselled against "the utterly odious and thoroughly dangerous practice of allowing the Levy Board to give substantial sums of money to the Totalisator Board to get involved in an agency agreement with a private bookmaker".

Following amendments that Walden supported, he told the Commons: "For betting the result of the Bill will be the best of all worlds, namely a strong form of pool betting with a competitor on-course and off-course. The consequences for the betting side and for racecourses, racecourse owners and punters will be much more desirable than they would have been had the Bill gone through as originally drafted."

Walden stood down from politics in 1977 to concentrate on a more lucrative broadcasting career. He left his ITV Sunday interview programme in 1986 and at one point was briefly persuaded to make a play for a role in racing.

After the British Horseracing Board was set up in 1993, he was one of three candidates to become chairman of its Industry Committee, which had evolved from the Horseracing Advisory Council, but he was defeated by Lord Wakeham, who subsequently became BHB chairman.

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