Sir Richard Branson looks likely to secure the running of Britain's National Lottery, writes Rachel Donnelly, despite yesterday's surprise decision by the Lottery Commission to reject rival bids to run the game by the current operator, Camelot, and the entrepreneur's People's Lottery consortium.
An interim arrangement proposed by the Lottery Commission means, however, says the People's Lottery consortium now has one month to persuade the commissioners that it should take over the running of the Lottery from Camelot next year. As the Conservatives called for an investigation into what they called a Lottery Commission "fiasco", the licensing body offered Camelot a lifeline saying that if negotiations with the People's Lottery failed, Camelot could re-enter the race.