Hasn’t the Chancellor done enough damage for one political lifetime? Apparently not, because she keeps pressing on.
Rachel Reeves is killing pubs while pretending to save them (Image: Getty)
In 18 (very long) months, Rachel Reeves has wreaked havoc. She’s hiked taxes, lost control of spending, crushed growth, driven up unemployment and made pretty much everything worse. And she’s done all of that while repeatedly claiming she’s “fixing the foundations” and “restoring stability.” If this is stability, I daren’t imagine what she thinks volatility looks like.
We pay more tax than ever, yet she’s still on course to borrow a staggering £150billion this year, all of which goes straight onto the national debt. Her budgets have both been total shambles, the second even worse than the first. She’ll be remembered for all the harm she’s caused, but most of all, I think she’ll be remembered for ruining Britain’s greatest asset.
I’m talking about the great British pub. As I wrote a few weeks ago, without pubs, Britain isn’t Britain. There’s nothing like them anywhere else. Tourists love them. We love them. They’ve been our favourite place for centuries. And now Reeves, with PM Keir Starmer, is recklessly destroying them while pretending to save them.
Which is very typical of them both. Starmer and Reeves swept to power claiming they’d only increased three obscure taxes, on private schools, non-doms and oil companies, totalling £8.5billion. So far they’ve hit us for a whopping £66billion, with working people bearing the brunt. So, of course, they’re coming for our pubs too.
Starmer claims he understands their value. Reeves is constantly pictured pulling pints. She’s lucky to find a pub to let her through the door. Many are banning Labour MPs and understandably so. Her business rate changes will hammer them.
Reeves’s last Budget confirmed that Covid-era business rate relief will end in April, triggering hundreds more pub closures and 15,000 job losses. But never fear: Reeves is working on a £300million “rescue package”. Those are words to terrify anyone in danger. If I was drowning and she threw me a lifebelt, I’d know the game was up.
This isn’t a lifeline, it’s barely even a sticking plaster. It’s only temporary, and other struggling hospitality sectors, including hotels, won’t qualify.
Pub owners say it will barely offset the damage she’s done elsewhere, from hikes in employer National Insurance, two big minimum wage rises, and the scrapping of pandemic-era VAT relief. Put simply, Reeves is killing our pubs.
As if that wasn’t enough, tomorrow she’ll make life even harder for hard-press publicans, with another alcohol duty hike. Sure, every Chancellor increases duty, but given all the other damage Labour has done, she should have thought twice about this one.
From February 1, duty rises by 3.66%, above the current inflation rate of 3.4%. By spring, when inflation may be down to 2%, this inflation-busting hike will already be baked in. And most likely repeated in the next Budget.
And Labour still won’t stop. Landlords also fear a lower drink-drive limit. This means motorists won’t be able to have a single pint, death for rural pubs. Plus there’s more planning and licensing red tape, and higher energy costs courtesy of Ed Miliband.
Pubs are a magnificent historical and cultural asset, yet one a week is closing now, faster even than under the Tories. Reeves has gone too far but as ever, nothing will stop her from going even further.
