'Not Welcome!': Labour's Battle with Local Inns Signals a New Year Problem.

Labour MPs heading back to their home districts this weekend might experience a wave of respite as a turbulent parliamentary session concludes. But, for those planning to frequent their local pub for a casual beer, festive cheer could be in short supply. Indeed, some may discover they are not allowed through the door.

For weeks, venues across the country have been displaying signs that state "Labour MPs Not Welcome" in protest to revisions in business rates unveiled by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in her latest budget.

This movement means one fewer escape for many elected officials seeking solace from the difficult situation of their party's unpopularity. Backbenchers now say frequent animosity in public spaces after a challenging first period that has seen the approval numbers drop sharply from around 34% to roughly under a fifth.

"It can be hard being the MP of the constituency you have forever lived in," said one. "Our neighborhood bar is where we went with the kids and just be a normal family. But the recent visits we've just ended up being verbally abused by other drinkers. Now I'm not even sure we'll be able to be served."

This palpable disappointment is visible in a online clip by Tom Hayes, the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East, addressing being barred from one of his local pubs, the Larderhouse.

"We're in the festive period," he said. "However the Larderhouse and other businesses with a 'No Labour MPs' sign in the window, they are undermining the welcoming atmosphere that publicans have helped to cultivate." He went on, "We have to get politics off the main street completely, but particularly at Christmas."

A Cornerstone in the National Identity

After a difficult few years marked by rising expenses, the pandemic, and changing habits, publicans were hopeful the chancellor's statement might bring some support—namely through a overdue reform of the commercial tax system.

However the chancellor dashed those expectations, keeping the system unreformed and choosing instead to reduce the multiplier and pledge £4.3bn over three years in financial support for the shops, pubs, and restaurants sectors.

While perhaps a supportive move, the value of that support package has been overshadowed by the effect of a three-yearly property revaluation, which has caused the rateable value of pubs and restaurants to increase sharply from their Covid-affected lows.

Beginning in next April, business taxes are set to rise by 115% for the typical hotel and 76% for a pub, versus just four percent for big grocery chains and seven percent for distribution warehouses. A major hospitality group, which operates multiple brands, says it will face an additional 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 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 cost of a drink is now prohibitively expensive. When we first became landlords 10 years ago, we charged £3.40 a pint. We're now nearly £7 a pint," Butler stated.

Furthermore, pandemic-related tax breaks are ending, while sector businesses are still managing rises in national insurance and the minimum wage from the previous budget.

"If you tried to design the least helpful financial plan for pubs and consumers, you couldn't have done much worse than what was announced," remarked Ash Corbett-Collins, the chairperson of Camra, the consumer organisation.

Many within the governing party feel this is a battle they should not have picked, not least because of the important role the neighborhood inn 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, said: "We said for two years to pubs and hospitality businesses that we are going to provide support but then they get hit by this revaluation. We cannot allow rates being reduced for large multinational companies but increasing for local venues."

Commentators note that Keir Starmer himself has long been a frequent patron at his local, the Pineapple in north London, and regularly mentions their importance to local communities. "There's nothing any of us like better than going to the pub for a pint, myself included," the prime minister said in February.

But pollsters compare confronting publicans to taking on NHS workers in terms of political risk.

Joe Twyman, director of the polling firm Deltapoll, explained: "In fiction and in fact, pubs have a special place in the public imagination.

"For many people the neighborhood inn is perceived to be an important part of the community, even if a significant number of those same people will infrequently drink there.

"The political risk with alienating pubs is that your opponents will readily accuse you of undermining the very heart of this nation and its history, especially in the countryside. And they will be able to produce many powerful examples to make their case."

'A Matter of Principle'

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

His campaign has been backed by a number of prominent figures, such as 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—however the latter has said he will not actually ban Labour MPs.

"We have been asking for help for a very long time," explained Lennox, who is calling for a temporary VAT reduction. "The government is presenting this as a helpful policy but that's not what people are feeling, and that is the thing that has aggrieved so many people."

Several within the industry think a campaign targeting individual Labour MPs is likely to backfire. "I'm not sure it's a wise move to ban the precise representatives we should be trying to engage with and speak to," said Corbett-Collins.

When questioned this week, the Treasury pointed to the package being offered to hospitality. "We have aided the hospitality industry with the budget's £4.3bn funding. This follows our efforts to simplify licensing, maintaining our reduction to alcohol duty on draught pints, and limiting corporation tax," a representative said.

The publicans, however, are in no mood to yield, even if alienating MPs