RYEDALE MP John Greenway was set today to stand down from the Tory front bench to focus on government proposals to de-regulate gambling.

Mr Greenway has been a Conservative spokesman on culture, media and sport for the past three years, and on home affairs for the previous three.

He now wants to concentrate for the coming year on work for a pre-legislative scrutiny committee, which will examine government plans to liberalise the rules on gambling.

He said there were dangers that if the legislation was not framed correctly, it could lead to many people being sucked into problem gambling.

Updated: 12:25 Monday, June 30, 2003