'Not Welcome!': Labour's Dispute with Public Houses Forecasts a New Year Problem.

Government ministers heading back to their constituencies this end of the week might breathe a sigh of respite as a hectic parliamentary session concludes. However, for those planning to frequent their local pub for a casual pint, festive cheer could be scarce. Indeed, some may discover they are unwelcome inside.

Over the past few weeks, businesses across the country have been displaying signs that proclaim "No Labour MPs" in objection to changes in business rates unveiled by the Finance Minister, Rachel Reeves, in her most recent financial statement.

This campaign results in one fewer escape for many elected officials seeking refuge from the harsh truth of their party's unpopularity. MPs now describe commonplace hostility in community settings after a rocky first 18 months that has seen the approval numbers fall from around 34% to roughly 18%.

"It's challenging being the representative of the area you have always lived in," remarked one. "Our neighborhood bar is where we would go with the kids and just be a normal family. But the last few times we've just ended up being confronted by other customers. Now I'm not even sure we'll be able to be served."

This feeling of frustration is visible in a recent video by Tom Hayes, the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East, addressing being banned from one of his regular haunts, the Larderhouse.

"It's meant to be a time of joy," he noted. "However the Larderhouse and other businesses with a 'No Labour MPs' notice in the window, they are eroding the welcoming atmosphere that local entrepreneurs have helped to nourish." He went on, "We have to get politics off the town centre completely, but particularly at Christmas."

A Cornerstone in the National Identity

After a challenging period marked by rising expenses, the COVID-19 crisis, and changing habits, publicans were hopeful the budget might bring some assistance—specifically through a long-promised revamp of the commercial tax system.

Yet the chancellor disappointed those expectations, keeping the system unreformed and opting rather to lower headline rates and pledge £4.3bn over three years in aid for the shops, pubs, and restaurants sectors.

While seemingly a positive step, the benefit of that support package has been dwarfed by the effect of a periodic property reassessment, which has caused the taxable value of pubs and restaurants to surge from their Covid-affected lows.

Beginning in next April, rates are set to jump by more than double for the average hotel and over three-quarters for a pub, compared with just 4% for big grocery chains and seven percent for distribution warehouses. Whitbread, which operates multiple brands, states it will face an additional tax bill of between £40m and £50m as a consequence.

Joe Butler, the publican at the Tollemache Arms in Northamptonshire, said: "Literally overnight, the valuation of our business has doubled. That's going to be a huge increase for us."

This pressure on publicans is inevitably passed on to the price of a customer's pint.

"The price of a pint is now prohibitively expensive. When we first became landlords 10 years ago, we charged £3.40 a pint. We're now approaching £7 a pint," Butler stated.

Furthermore, pandemic-related tax discounts are falling away, while hospitality operators are still absorbing increases in employer contributions and the living wage from the previous budget.

"If you tried to design the worst possible budget for pubs and consumers, you would have come close to what was announced," said Ash Corbett-Collins, the chair of Camra, the consumer organisation.

Many within the Labour party feel this is a confrontation they should not have picked, not least because of the important role the neighborhood inn holds in British culture.

Richard Quigley, the MP for the Isle of Wight West, who also operates a chip shop on the island, argued: "We said for two years to pubs and hospitality businesses that we are going to provide support but then they get affected by this new assessment. We cannot allow rates being reduced for large multinational companies but increasing for independent businesses."

Observers highlight that Keir Starmer himself has historically been a regular at his local pub, the Pineapple in north London, and often references their value to neighborhoods. "We all enjoy nothing more than going to the local for a pint, myself included," the prime minister said in February.

However pollsters compare confronting pub owners to taking on NHS workers in terms of public perception.

Joe Twyman, director of the polling firm Deltapoll, explained: "From soap operas to real life, pubs have a unique position in the British psyche.

"In the public's view the neighborhood inn is seen as an key pillar of the community, even if a large segment of those same people will seldom drink there.

"The political risk with antagonising pubs is that your political rivals will readily accuse you of undermining the core of this nation and its history, particularly in the countryside. And they will be able to produce many powerful examples to drive the message home."

'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 says he has handed out notices to nearly 1,000 premises and is dispatching 100 more every day.

His action has gained the endorsement of a number of high-profile figures, including broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson, who runs a pub called the Farmer's Dog, and singer Rick Astley, who has a stake in a bar in north London—however the latter has indicated he will not actually ban Labour MPs.

"We have been asking for relief for a very long time," explained Lennox, who is advocating for a temporary VAT reduction. "Ministers is presenting this as a helpful policy but that's not what people are seeing, and that is the thing that has aggrieved so many people."

Several within the sector feel a campaign banning individual Labour MPs is may backfire. "I doubt it's a wise move to ban the very individuals we should be trying to invite in and speak to," commented Corbett-Collins.

When pressed this week, the Treasury spoke of the support being made available to the sector. "We have aided the hospitality industry with the budget's £4.3bn investment. This comes on top of our efforts to ease licensing, keeping our reduction to alcohol duty on beer from the tap, and capping corporation tax," a official stated.

The business owners, on the other hand, are in little mood to compromise, even if losing MPs