Two company bosses have come under fire for telling staff to vote Conservative or risk losing their jobs, including one who described as “banter” a warning that “Labour voters will be made redundant first”.

The GMB union branded John Brooker as Dickensian after he apparently told employees at his IT firm Storm Technologies to vote Conservative “if you value your job”.

Social media users labelled betting firm Jenningsbet disgusting after staff were told the company could go bust, costing them their jobs, unless the Tories won.

Brooker, the managing director and co-owner of Watford-based Storm Technologies, wrote to staff on the day of the election saying he hoped they would “exercise your right to elect your chosen candidate/party”.

In an email he has since claimed was meant in jest, he added that they should vote Conservative if they “believe in free enterprise and progression without being taxed out of the game”.

He said Theresa May was not the perfect PM but was a far better option than Jeremy Corbyn, who he said would be a nightmare.

Brooker said Corbyn “resents those making good money, wants to hike corporation tax up by 7% immediately, hike higher rate tax payers by another 5%, bring far more people into the 40% tax bracket [and there are a lot of you here at Storm] borrow billions which at some point has to be paid back and will generally send us backwards.



“If by any chance Labour win, we’ll have to rethink a few things here at the company so if you value your job and want to hold onto your hard earned money vote Conservative.

“Labour voters will be made redundant first if Labour do win and things slow down.

“Feel free to vote for whoever you want but I have said my piece.”



Storm Technologies’ last accounts show it made £2.1m profit after tax in 2015 and paid £1.7m in dividends to its only two shareholders, John and Soraya Brooker.

Brooker also has a £2.9m interest-free loan from the company, which recently secured the right to bid for public sector contracts.

Warren Kenny, the GMB’s London region secretary, said: “If you want to see an example of the kind of oppressive working environment seven years of Tory rule has created, this is it.”

He said staff should be able to vote for who they like “without fear for their jobs and their livelihoods”.

“A boss should not be harassing employees or interfering with their right to vote for who they wish. It’s Dickensian, workhouse nonsense,” he added.

Brooker said the GMB had taken a “tongue-in-cheek” email sent after he had been having a joke with staff on election day out of context.

“We have a very open culture in the office here, where people are free to express their opinions and share a joke or two.

“No offence was intended, nor was there any threat whatsoever levelled at staff.

“This was nothing more than internal banter now completely taken out of context.

“Obviously in hindsight I regret any offence this has caused and have reiterated to all my staff the respect I have for their political views and opinions.”

It also emerged that Greg Knight, the managing director of the UK’s largest independent bookmaker, Jennings Racing, warned 500 staff their jobs were at risk the day before voters went to the polls.

He said Labour and the Liberal Democrats would crack down on controversial fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which make up more than half of bookmakers’ revenues.

Both parties pledged in their manifestos to reduce the maximum stake from £100 to £2 over allegations, disputed by the bookmaking industry, that the machines are particularly addictive.

May’s government is due to publish a review of the gambling industry this summer that is widely expected to stop short of reducing the highest FOBT wager to £2.

“Whilst it is certainly not our place to meddle in anyone’s private political views it is important that every person employed in the betting shop industry understands the implication that a change in government will bring,” Knight said.

He said bookmakers, which is majority-owned by the three brothers behind the William Pears property empire, could survive a cut to a £25 maximum stake but anything lower would mean that “the future looks poor”.

Knight said: “If they are reduced to less than £10 then I think it is no exaggeration to say that the business will be unable to continue and all jobs would be lost. It really is that stark.”

He said the Tories were “prepared to listen to the evidence” that reducing the maximum stake would not help “problem gamblers”. “In fact they will go online completely unregulated,” he added.

Internet gaming firms require a licence from the Gambling Commission to operate, but Knight’s comment is understood to relate to unlicensed betting operations based abroad but accessible online.

JenningsBet, the company’s high street shop brand, has about 400 FOBTs across its 100 branches. The legal maximum for the terminals is four per shop.

The letter was leaked on Twitter, where users called it disgusting.

Absolutely disgusting from JenningsBet. Give this some RT's lads. https://t.co/jVuFjZ56FG — John (@DogLayer) June 11, 2017

It's absolutely disgusting behaviour this to be honest. — Josh Oates (@MesutOatesil) June 11, 2017

The Gambling Commission revealed last month that gamblers lost a record £1.8bn on FOBTs in the year to last September, with each machine in the UK bringing in an average of nearly £53,000.

At that rate, JenningsBet’s network of FOBTs would deliver revenues of £21m a year.

A spokesperson for the company said: “JenningsBet believes that it is important for its employees to understand political policies that may impact upon their livelihoods and economic security.

“The email that was sent to all employees on 7 June provided an accurate assessment of political manifesto commitments in relation to bookmaking.

“It is, of course, entirely a matter for individual Jenningsbet employees to decide how they wish to vote and what factors they wish to take into account. There is nothing in the email which is not factually correct.”

Accounts filed at Companies House show the parent company, Betting Shop Services Ltd, lost £3.6m last year on revenues of £35m.

The company is majority-owned by the Pears brothers, Mark, David and Trevor, who inherited their grandfather Bernard Pears’ property empire, now worth about £6bn.