'Not Welcome!': Labour's Battle with Pubs Promises a New Year Problem.

Labour MPs visiting their home districts this weekend might experience a wave of respite as a chaotic political term concludes. However, for those looking to frequent their local pub for a relaxing beer, goodwill could be scarce. In fact, some may discover they are not allowed through the door.

In recent weeks, businesses throughout the nation have been posting signs that state "No Labour MPs" in protest to revisions in business rates announced by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in her most recent financial statement.

This campaign results in one fewer retreat for many elected officials seeking refuge from the harsh truth of their public disapproval. Representatives now report regular hostility in everyday places after a difficult first year and a half that has seen the government's support fall from around a third to roughly 18%.

"It's challenging being the representative of the constituency you have forever lived in," said one. "The local pub is where we used to go with the kids and just be a ordinary family. But the recent visits we've just ended up being confronted by other patrons. Now I'm not even sure we'll be able to enter."

This sense of dismay is visible in a social media post by Tom Hayes, the Labour MP for Bournemouth East, lamenting being refused entry to one of his local pubs, the Larderhouse.

"We're in the festive period," he stated. "However the Larderhouse and other establishments with a 'MPs Not Welcome' notice in the window, they are eroding the welcoming atmosphere that local entrepreneurs have helped to foster." He added, "We have to get politics off the town centre altogether, but above all at Christmas."

A Cherished Institution in the Public Consciousness

After a tough times marked by economic pressures, the pandemic, and evolving social trends, licensees were hopeful the budget might bring some support—specifically through a overdue overhaul of the commercial tax system.

Yet the chancellor disappointed those hopes, keeping the system largely unchanged and choosing instead to lower headline rates and allocate £4.3bn over three years in aid for the shops, pubs, and restaurants sectors.

While perhaps a positive step, the benefit of that funding pledge has been dwarfed by the effect of a three-yearly property revaluation, which has caused the valuation of hospitality venues to increase sharply from their Covid-affected lows.

Beginning in next April, business taxes are set to jump by 115% for the typical hotel and 76% for a public house, in contrast to just 4% for big grocery chains and seven percent for distribution warehouses. A major hospitality group, which owns pubs, restaurants and the Premier Inn hotel chain, says it will face an additional tax bill of between £40m and £50m as a consequence.

Joe Butler, the landlord at the Tollemache Arms in Northamptonshire, explained: "Literally overnight, the value of our business has increased twofold. That's going to be a massive rise for us."

This burden on business owners is certainly reflected in the price of a customer's pint.

"The price of a pint is now unaffordable. When we first started here 10 years ago, we charged £3.40 a pint. We're now nearly £7 a pint," Butler added.

Simultaneously, pandemic-related tax breaks are being phased out, while sector businesses are still managing rises in employer contributions and the living wage from the previous budget.

"If you tried to design the least helpful budget for pubs and consumers, you would have come close to what came out," said Ash Corbett-Collins, the chair of Camra, the consumer organisation.

A number within the governing party believe this is a fight they ought to have avoided, not least because of the important role the community pub holds in British culture.

Richard Quigley, the MP for the Isle of Wight West, who also runs a chip shop on the island, commented: "We said for two years to pubs and hospitality businesses that we are going to offer relief but then they get hit by this new assessment. We cannot allow taxes going down for big corporations but up for local venues."

Observers point out that Keir Starmer himself has historically been a regular at his local, the Pineapple in north London, and often references their value to local communities. "There is little we prefer than going to the local for a drink, myself included," the prime minister said in February.

Yet political analysts liken antagonising pub owners to challenging NHS workers in terms of political risk.

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

"To a lot of individuals the neighborhood inn is seen as an important part of the locality, even if a significant number of those same people will infrequently drink there.

"The hazard with antagonising pubs is that your opponents will easily be able to accuse you of undermining the core of this nation and its history, notably in the countryside. And they will be able to produce many heartfelt examples to make their case."

'Nothing Personal'

One such example is Andy Lennox, the landlord at the Old Thatch pub in Wimborne, Dorset, and the organiser of the "MPs Barred" campaign. Lennox states he has distributed signs to nearly 1,000 venues and is dispatching 100 more every day.

His protest has received support from several well-known figures, such as broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson, who owns a pub called the Farmer's Dog, and singer Rick Astley, who part-owns 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," said Lennox, who is demanding a short-term VAT reduction. "Ministers is spinning this as a relief package but that's not what people are experiencing, and that is the thing that has angered so many people."

A number within the sector feel a campaign singling out individual politicians is likely to be counterproductive. "It's questionable it's a wise move to ban the exact people we should be trying to invite in and lobby," said Corbett-Collins.

When pressed this week, the government department highlighted the package being offered to the sector. "We are supporting the hospitality industry with the budget's £4.3bn investment. This is in addition to our work to ease licensing, maintaining our reduction to alcohol duty on beer from the tap, and limiting corporation tax," a spokesperson said.

The business owners, nevertheless, are in not the frame of mind to compromise, even if turning away MPs