'Not Welcome!': Labour's Battle with Pubs Promises a Fresh Year Headache.

Labour MPs heading back to their constituencies this weekend might feel a sense of respite as a turbulent parliamentary session concludes. But, for those looking to visit their community tavern for a restorative drink, holiday spirit could be lacking. In fact, some may realize they are barred from entry.

For weeks, establishments nationwide have been posting signs that declare "Labour MPs Not Welcome" in objection to revisions in business rates revealed by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in her latest financial statement.

This protest results in one fewer escape for many Labour MPs seeking solace from the difficult situation of their party's unpopularity. Backbenchers now say frequent hostility in everyday places after a rocky first period that has seen the party's ratings plummet from around 34% to roughly 18%.

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

This feeling of frustration is evident in a social media post by Tom Hayes, the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East, lamenting being barred from one of his local pubs, the Larderhouse.

"We're in the festive period," he noted. "However the Larderhouse and other establishments with a 'No Labour MPs' notice in the window, they are damaging the inclusive culture that local entrepreneurs have helped to foster." He went on, "We need to remove politics off the high street altogether, but particularly at Christmas."

A Cherished Institution in the National Identity

After a difficult few years marked by high costs, the COVID-19 crisis, and evolving social trends, licensees were anticipating the budget might bring some relief—particularly through a much-anticipated overhaul of the commercial tax system.

Yet the chancellor poured cold water on those expectations, keeping the system largely unchanged and opting rather to lower the multiplier and commit £4.3bn over three years in financial support for the retail and hospitality sectors.

While perhaps a gesture of goodwill, the benefit of that funding pledge has been minimized by the effect of a periodic property revaluation, which has caused the rateable value of hospitality venues 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 pub, compared with just 4% for large supermarkets and seven percent for distribution warehouses. Whitbread, which operates pubs, restaurants and the Premier Inn hotel chain, states it will face an extra tax bill of between £40m and £50m as a result.

Joe Butler, the publican at the Tollemache Arms in Northamptonshire, commented: "With the click of a finger, the valuation of our business has increased twofold. That's going to be a significant burden for us."

This burden on business owners is inevitably reflected in the price of a customer'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 nearly £7 a pint," Butler stated.

Furthermore, Covid-era tax breaks are falling away, while sector businesses are still coping with increases in employer contributions and the minimum wage from last year's budget.

"If you tried to design the least helpful budget for pubs and consumers, you wouldn't have got far away from what we saw," 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 role the community pub plays in national life.

Richard Quigley, the Labour MP for the Isle of Wight West, who also runs a fish and chip shop on the island, commented: "We pledged for two years to pubs and hospitality businesses that we are going to offer relief but then they get hit by this revaluation. We cannot allow rates going down for big corporations but up for small restaurants and pubs."

Commentators highlight that Keir Starmer himself has historically been a regular at his local, 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 drink, myself included," the PM said in February.

Yet strategists liken antagonising publicans to doing so with NHS workers in terms of public perception.

Joe Twyman, director of the polling firm Deltapoll, explained: "In fiction and in fact, pubs have a cherished status in the national consciousness.

"In the public's view the local pub is regarded as an integral component of the community, even if a good proportion of those same people will infrequently drink there.

"The political risk with antagonising pubs is that your political rivals will quickly accuse you of assaulting the very heart of this nation and its traditions, notably in the countryside. And they will be able to produce many powerful examples to drive the message home."

'Nothing Personal'

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

His protest has gained the endorsement of several high-profile figures, such as broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson, who runs a pub called the Farmer's Dog, and singer Rick Astley, who part-owns a bar in north London—although the latter has clarified he will not formally bar Labour MPs.

"We have long sought relief for a years," stated Lennox, who is advocating for a short-term VAT reduction. "The government is spinning this as a support measure but that's not what people are feeling, and that is the thing that has aggrieved so many people."

A number within the sector feel a protest banning 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 engage with and speak to," said Corbett-Collins.

When pressed this week, the government department highlighted the support being provided to the sector. "We have aided the hospitality industry with the budget's £4.3bn investment. This comes on top of our work to ease licensing, maintaining our cut to alcohol duty on beer from the tap, and limiting corporation tax," a representative said.

The landlords, however, are in little mood to back down, even if turning away MPs