'Not Welcome!': Labour's Battle with Public Houses Promises a Fresh Year Problem.

Labour MPs heading back to their constituencies this end of the week might feel a sense of respite as a chaotic parliamentary session wraps up. However, for those hoping to visit their neighborhood bar for a restorative drink, festive cheer could be lacking. Actually, some may realize they are not allowed through the door.

For weeks, venues nationwide have been posting signs that declare "MPs Barred" in demonstration to changes in business rates announced by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in her most recent financial statement.

This movement means one fewer escape for many elected officials seeking solace from the bruising reality of their party's unpopularity. Representatives now say frequent animosity in community settings after a challenging first year and a half 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 forever lived in," commented one. "The local pub is where we used to go with the kids and just be a normal family. But the past occasions we've just ended up being shouted at by other drinkers. Now I'm not even sure we'll be able to enter."

This palpable disappointment is clear 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.

"It's meant to be a time of joy," he noted. "Yet the Larderhouse and other businesses with a 'No Labour MPs' notice in the window, they are undermining the inclusive culture that publicans have helped to nourish." He added, "We have to get politics off the main street altogether, but especially at Christmas."

'Pubs Have a Special Place in the National Identity

After a difficult few years marked by economic pressures, the COVID-19 crisis, and changing habits, licensees were anticipating the chancellor's statement might bring some support—particularly through a much-anticipated revamp of the commercial tax system.

But the chancellor poured cold water on those hopes, leaving the system largely unchanged and choosing instead to lower headline rates and commit £4.3bn over three years in aid for the shops, pubs, and restaurants sectors.

While seemingly a gesture of goodwill, the value of that support package has been minimized by the effect of a three-yearly property revaluation, which has caused the valuation of pubs and restaurants to surge from their pandemic-era lows.

Beginning in next April, business taxes are set to increase by 115% for the typical hotel and 76% for a public house, compared with just 4% for large supermarkets and 7% for distribution warehouses. A major hospitality group, which owns pubs, restaurants and the Premier Inn hotel chain, estimates it will face an extra tax bill of between £40m and £50m as a consequence.

Joe Butler, the landlord at the Tollemache Arms in Northamptonshire, explained: "With the click of a finger, the worth of our business has doubled. That's going to be a significant burden for us."

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

"A pint of beer is now unaffordable. When we first started here 10 years ago, we charged £3.40 a pint. We're now verging on £7 a pint," Butler said.

At the same time, Covid-era tax reliefs are falling away, while hospitality operators are still absorbing increases in employer contributions and the living wage from the previous budget.

"To create the most damaging financial plan for pubs and consumers, you wouldn't have got far away from what we saw," stated Ash Corbett-Collins, the chairperson of Camra, the campaign for real ale.

Several within the governing party think this is a confrontation they should not have picked, not least because of the important place the local 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 promised for two years to the sector that we are going to help you out but then they get hit by this revaluation. We can't have taxes being reduced for big corporations but up for local venues."

Some point out that Keir Starmer himself has long been a regular at his local, the Pineapple in north London, and frequently speaks of their value to local communities. "There's nothing any of us like better than going to the local for a drink, myself included," the PM remarked in February.

Yet pollsters liken antagonising pub owners to doing so with NHS workers in terms of political risk.

Joe Twyman, director of the public opinion consultancy Deltapoll, said: "In fiction and in fact, pubs have a unique position in the public imagination.

"In the public's view the neighborhood inn is seen as an integral component of the community, even if a significant number of those same people will rarely actually drink there.

"The hazard with making an enemy of pubs is that your critics will easily be able to accuse you of undermining the very heart of this nation and its history, notably in the countryside. And they will be able to produce many emotive examples to prove their point."

'Not a Personal Vendetta'

One such example is Andy Lennox, the landlord at the Old Thatch pub in Wimborne, Dorset, and the coordinator of the "No Labour MPs" campaign. Lennox says he has provided notices to nearly 1,000 premises and is mailing 100 more every day.

His protest has been backed by several well-known 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—though the latter has clarified he will not formally bar Labour MPs.

"We have pleaded for support for a very long time," stated Lennox, who is calling for a short-term VAT reduction. "Ministers is dressing this up 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 industry believe a campaign targeting individual Labour MPs is likely to backfire. "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 spoke of the package being provided to the sector. "We are supporting the hospitality industry with the budget's £4.3bn support package. This follows our initiatives to ease licensing, keeping our cut to alcohol duty on draught pints, and capping corporation tax," a spokesperson said.

The publicans, on the other hand, are in not the frame of mind to back down, even if turning away MPs