'You're Barred!': The Government's Dispute with Local Inns Signals a New Year Headache.
Labour MPs returning to their local areas this weekend might experience a wave of respite as a hectic parliamentary session wraps up. However, for those looking to frequent their neighborhood bar for a casual drink, holiday spirit could be in short supply. Indeed, some may realize they are barred from entry.
Over the past few weeks, businesses across the country have been displaying signs that proclaim "No Labour MPs" in demonstration to changes in business rates announced by the Finance Minister, Rachel Reeves, in her autumn financial statement.
This protest results in one fewer haven for many government backbenchers seeking solace from the bruising reality of their public disapproval. Representatives now say commonplace hostility in public spaces after a difficult first period that has seen the government's support plummet from around 34% to roughly under a fifth.
"It can be hard being the representative of the constituency you have always lived in," said one. "That pub is where we would go with the kids and just be a ordinary family. But the last few times we've just ended up being verbally abused by other customers. Now I'm not even sure we'll be able to enter."
This palpable disappointment is visible in a social media post by Tom Hayes, the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East, discussing being barred from one of his regular haunts, the Larderhouse.
"We're in the festive period," he said. "But the Larderhouse and other businesses with a 'MPs Not Welcome' sticker in the window, they are undermining the welcoming atmosphere that business owners have helped to cultivate." He added, "We have to get politics off the main street completely, but above all at Christmas."
A Cornerstone in the National Identity
After a difficult few years marked by economic pressures, the pandemic, and evolving social trends, publicans were hopeful the budget might bring some relief—namely through a overdue reform of the commercial tax system.
But the chancellor dashed those expectations, leaving the system unreformed and opting rather to lower headline rates and commit £4.3bn over three years in funding for the retail and hospitality sectors.
While seemingly a positive step, the impact of that support package has been minimized by the effect of a three-yearly property revaluation, which has caused the rateable value of pubs and restaurants to increase sharply from their pandemic-era lows.
From next April, business taxes are set to jump by 115% for the typical hotel and over three-quarters for a public house, compared with just 4% for large supermarkets and 7% for distribution warehouses. Whitbread, which operates pubs, restaurants and the Premier Inn hotel chain, estimates it will face an extra tax bill of between £40m and £50m as a outcome.
Joe Butler, the landlord at the Tollemache Arms in Northamptonshire, said: "Literally overnight, the value of our business has increased twofold. That's going to be a significant burden for us."
This burden on business owners is inevitably passed on to the price of a punter's pint.
"The cost of a drink is now unaffordable. When we first took this pub on 10 years ago, we charged £3.40 a pint. We're now approaching £7 a pint," Butler added.
Simultaneously, Covid-era tax reliefs are being phased out, while hospitality operators are still coping with rises in employer contributions and the minimum wage from last year's budget.
"To create the most damaging financial plan for the hospitality sector and its customers, you wouldn't have got far away from what came out," said Ash Corbett-Collins, the chair of Camra, the campaign for real ale.
Several within the Labour party think this is a fight they could have sidestepped, not least because of the important place the neighborhood inn plays in society.
Richard Quigley, the Labour MP for the Isle of Wight West, who also operates a chip shop on the island, commented: "We pledged for two years to pubs and hospitality businesses that we are going to help you out but then they get affected by this new assessment. We cannot allow rates going down for big corporations but increasing for small restaurants and pubs."
Observers highlight that Keir Starmer himself has often been a regular at his local, the Pineapple in north London, and often references their significance to local communities. "There is little we prefer than going to the local for a drink, myself included," the PM stated in February.
Yet political analysts liken antagonising pub owners to taking on NHS workers in terms of political risk.
Joe Twyman, co-founder of the public opinion consultancy Deltapoll, explained: "From the Queen Vic to the Rovers Return, pubs have a cherished status in the public imagination.
"For many people the neighborhood inn is regarded as an key pillar of the locality, even if a significant number of those same people will infrequently drink there.
"The hazard with alienating pubs is that your opponents will readily accuse you of undermining the core of this country and its traditions, notably in rural areas. And they will be able to produce many emotive examples to make their case."
'Not a Personal Vendetta'
One such case is Andy Lennox, the publican at the Old Thatch pub in Wimborne, Dorset, and the coordinator of the "MPs Barred" campaign. Lennox states he has distributed notices to nearly 1,000 venues and is mailing 100 more every day.
His action has received support from several well-known figures, including television presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who owns a pub called the Farmer's Dog, and singer Rick Astley, who has a stake in a brewpub in north London—although the latter has clarified he will not refuse service to Labour MPs.
"We have been asking for relief for a considerable period," explained Lennox, who is calling for a temporary VAT reduction. "The Treasury is spinning this as a relief package but that's not what people are feeling, and that is the thing that has angered so many people."
A number within the hospitality trade think a protest targeting individual Labour MPs is likely to have unintended consequences. "I'm not sure it's a effective strategy to ban the very individuals we should be trying to invite in and influence," commented Corbett-Collins.
When questioned this week, the Exchequer highlighted the package being provided to hospitality. "We are supporting the hospitality industry with the budget's £4.3bn funding. This is in addition to our work to ease licensing, maintaining our cut to alcohol duty on beer from the tap, and limiting corporation tax," a representative stated.
The publicans, on the other hand, are in no mood to compromise, even if losing MPs