'You're Barred!': The Government's Clash with Pubs Forecasts a Fresh Year Problem.
Government ministers returning to their home districts this end of the week might breathe a sigh of relief as a turbulent political term ends. However, for those looking to stop by their local pub for a restorative beer, holiday spirit could be scarce. Indeed, some may discover they are unwelcome inside.
In recent weeks, establishments throughout the nation have been putting up signs that state "MPs Barred" in protest to adjustments in business rates announced by the Finance Minister, Rachel Reeves, in her autumn budget.
This campaign means one fewer retreat for many elected officials seeking solace from the bruising reality of their public disapproval. MPs now report regular animosity in public spaces after a rocky first 18 months that has seen the approval numbers fall from around 34% to roughly 18%.
"It is difficult being the MP of the constituency you have always lived in," said one. "The local pub is where we would go with the kids and just be a ordinary family. But the past occasions we've just ended up being shouted at by other customers. Now I'm not even sure we'll be able to enter."
This sense of dismay is evident in a social media post by Tom Hayes, the Labour MP for Bournemouth East, lamenting being banned from one of his regular haunts, the Larderhouse.
"It's meant to be a time of joy," he noted. "But the Larderhouse and other businesses with a 'MPs Not Welcome' sticker in the window, they are damaging the inclusive culture that publicans have helped to foster." He continued, "We need to remove politics off the high street altogether, but particularly at Christmas."
A Cornerstone in the National Identity
After a challenging period marked by rising expenses, the pandemic, and changing habits, landlords were optimistic the budget might bring some relief—namely through a much-anticipated overhaul of the business rates system.
However the chancellor poured cold water on those hopes, leaving the system unreformed and choosing instead to lower the multiplier and allocate £4.3bn over three years in funding for the retail and hospitality sectors.
While perhaps a gesture of goodwill, the value of that support package has been overshadowed by the effect of a periodic property reassessment, which has caused the rateable value of pubs and restaurants to spike from their pandemic-era lows.
Beginning in next April, business taxes are set to jump by 115% for the average hotel and over three-quarters for a public house, versus just four percent for large supermarkets and seven percent for logistics centres. A major hospitality group, which operates pubs, restaurants and the Premier Inn hotel chain, estimates 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 worth of our business has increased twofold. That's going to be a huge increase for us."
This burden on business owners is directly reflected in the price of a punter's pint.
"The price of a pint is now prohibitively expensive. When we first took this pub on 10 years ago, we charged £3.40 a pint. We're now verging on £7 a pint," Butler stated.
Furthermore, Covid-era tax discounts are ending, while hospitality operators are still coping with rises in national insurance and the minimum wage from the previous budget.
"If you tried to design the least helpful budget for the hospitality sector and its customers, you would have come close to what we saw," said Ash Corbett-Collins, the chair of Camra, the consumer organisation.
Several within the Labour party believe this is a fight they ought to have avoided, not least because of the important role the community pub holds in society.
Richard Quigley, the Labour MP for the Isle of Wight West, who also runs a fish and chip shop on the island, argued: "We pledged for two years to pubs and hospitality businesses that we are going to provide support but then they get hit by this revaluation. We can't have rates going down for large multinational companies but up for local venues."
Some point out that Keir Starmer himself has often been a frequent patron at his local pub, the Pineapple in north London, and regularly mentions their significance to local communities. "There's nothing any of us like better than going to the local for a pint, myself included," the prime minister said in February.
Yet strategists liken confronting pub owners to taking on NHS workers in terms of public perception.
Joe Twyman, director of the public opinion consultancy Deltapoll, said: "From soap operas to real life, pubs have a special place in the public imagination.
"To a lot of individuals the neighborhood inn is perceived to be an important part of the locality, even if a significant number of those same people will seldom drink there.
"The danger for politicians with antagonising pubs is that your critics will easily be able to accuse you of undermining the core of this country and its history, especially in rural areas. And they will be able to produce many powerful examples to make their case."
'A Matter of Principle'
One such example is Andy Lennox, the publican at the Old Thatch pub in Wimborne, Dorset, and the coordinator of the "No Labour MPs" initiative. Lennox reports he has handed out notices to nearly 1,000 venues and is mailing 100 more every day.
His protest has gained the endorsement of several high-profile 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 bar in north London—although the latter has indicated he will not formally bar Labour MPs.
"We have long sought relief for a years," stated Lennox, who is demanding a temporary VAT reduction. "Ministers is presenting this as a helpful policy but that's not what people are feeling, and that is the thing that has aggrieved so many people."
Several within the hospitality trade feel a protest singling out individual Labour MPs is may be counterproductive. "I'm not sure it's a wise move to ban the exact people we should be trying to invite in and lobby," said Corbett-Collins.
When questioned this week, the government department highlighted the support being provided to hospitality. "We're protecting the hospitality industry with the budget's £4.3bn investment. This is in addition to our work to ease licensing, maintaining our cut to alcohol duty on draught pints, and capping corporation tax," a representative stated.
The landlords, nevertheless, are in not the frame of mind to yield, even if alienating MPs
