The Chancellor is set to destroy the best of Britain, while the PM just spouts rubbish.
Bungling Rachel Reeves has signed death warrant for pubs (Image: Getty)
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are combining to wreck one of Britain’s greatest assets, our pubs. Without pubs, Britain isn’t Britain. There’s nothing like them anywhere else. Tourists love them. We love them. They’re our favourite place and have been for centuries. Labour doesn’t care. Instead, it’s choking them with tax after tax.
Worse, Starmer is presiding over their decline by making soothing noises and pretending he’s coming to their rescue. That’s his way. He did it at the election, promising Labour wouldn’t hike taxes, then whacking the country with £66billion while outrageously claiming he’d stuck to the manifesto.
Now he’s pulling the same trick on pubs. This week, Starmer said he understands their value. He said he wants to support them. He said Labour is listening.
He’s talking the kind of rubbish normally heard at closing time, yet expects us to swallow it.
Starmer has finally admitted that many pubs will struggle under Labour’s business rates changes. That’s putting it mildly. After lockdowns, soaring energy bills and the cost-of-living crisis, pubs were desperate for stability. Instead, they got Rachel Reeves. And nobody deserves that.
Her November Budget confirmed that Covid-era business rates relief will end in April, in a move that will trigger hundreds more closures and the loss of 15,000 jobs.
On top of that, many village pubs will pay business rates for the first time. Large numbers will shut as a result.
Publicans are furious. Labour MPs have been barred from scores of pubs and restaurants across the country. Reeves has even been barred from her own local.
Starmer tried to calm things down, waffling on about offering further support, but it’s just empty words and blether.
We know the PM says whatever suits him at the moment. He lies and lies and lies. And that brings us back to Rachel Reeves.
Despite all the Prime Minister’s promises, the Treasury has made clear Reeves will not change the tax policy that’s hammering pubs.
The Treasury insists that transition measures, such as capping next year’s bill increases at 15% will do the job. I don’t believe it.
Its half measures won’t offset April’s big hike in employers’ national insurance and two inflation-busting increases in the minimum wage. Both courtesy of Rachel Reeves.
Pubs are not just businesses. They’re employers, community hubs, and part of our national identity. Politicians love being photographed pouring a pint. Starmer and Reeves included.
If I worked behind a bar, I wouldn’t serve them one. I’d show them the door.
