'Not Welcome!': The Government's Battle with Public Houses Signals a New Year Problem.

Government ministers visiting their local areas this end of the week might experience a wave of relief as a hectic parliamentary session ends. But, for those hoping to frequent their neighborhood bar for a casual pint, festive cheer could be in short supply. Actually, some may find they are not allowed through the door.

Over the past few weeks, businesses nationwide have been putting up signs that proclaim "MPs Barred" in objection to revisions in commercial property taxes unveiled by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in her latest financial statement.

This campaign means one fewer haven for many government backbenchers seeking solace from the harsh truth of their public disapproval. Backbenchers now report regular animosity in public spaces after a difficult first year and a half that has seen the party's ratings drop sharply from around a third to roughly 18%.

"It's challenging being the representative of the area you have forever lived in," remarked one. "Our neighborhood bar is where we used to go with the kids and just be a regular family. But the last few times we've just ended up being shouted at by other drinkers. Now I'm not even sure we'll be able to get in."

This sense of dismay is clear in a recent video by Tom Hayes, the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East, addressing being barred from one of his regular haunts, the Larderhouse.

"It's meant to be a time of joy," he stated. "Yet the Larderhouse and other establishments with a 'No Labour MPs' sticker in the window, they are damaging the community spirit that local entrepreneurs have helped to cultivate." He went on, "Politics must be kept politics off the town centre completely, but especially at Christmas."

A Cornerstone in the British Psyche

After a tough times marked by economic pressures, the COVID-19 crisis, and evolving social trends, landlords were optimistic the chancellor's statement might bring some assistance—namely through a long-promised reform of the commercial tax system.

Yet the chancellor dashed those hopes, keeping the system unreformed and opting rather to lower the multiplier and pledge £4.3bn over three years in funding for the shops, pubs, and restaurants sectors.

While perhaps a gesture of goodwill, the impact of that funding pledge has been dwarfed by the effect of a three-yearly property revaluation, which has caused the rateable value of pubs and restaurants to surge from their Covid-affected lows.

From next April, rates are set to jump by more than double for the average hotel and 76% for a public house, versus just 4% for big grocery chains and seven percent 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 result.

Joe Butler, the landlord at the Tollemache Arms in Northamptonshire, said: "Literally overnight, the valuation of our business has doubled. That's going to be a massive rise for us."

This pressure on publicans is inevitably passed on to the price of a customer's pint.

"The price of a pint is now prohibitively expensive. When we first became landlords 10 years ago, we charged £3.40 a pint. We're now approaching £7 a pint," Butler said.

Furthermore, pandemic-related tax breaks are being phased out, while hospitality operators are still absorbing rises in employer contributions and the living wage from last year's budget.

"To create the least helpful financial plan for the hospitality sector and its customers, you couldn't have done much worse than what we saw," remarked Ash Corbett-Collins, the chair of Camra, the campaign for real ale.

Many within the Labour party feel this is a fight they should not have picked, not least because of the important place the community pub holds in British culture.

Richard Quigley, the Labour MP for the Isle of Wight West, who also runs a fish and chip shop on the island, commented: "We said for two years to the sector that we are going to offer relief but then they get affected by this new assessment. We cannot allow taxes being reduced for big corporations but up for independent businesses."

Some note that Keir Starmer himself has long been a regular at his local pub, the Pineapple in north London, and regularly mentions their importance to neighborhoods. "There's nothing any of us like better than going to the local for a pint, myself included," the PM remarked in February.

But political analysts liken confronting publicans to taking on NHS workers in terms of public perception.

Joe Twyman, director of the polling firm Deltapoll, explained: "From soap operas to real life, pubs have a special place in the public imagination.

"For many people the local pub is perceived to be an important part of the community, even if a large segment of those same people will rarely actually drink there.

"The political risk with making an enemy of pubs is that your opponents will quickly accuse you of assaulting the core of this nation and its history, especially in the countryside. And they will be able to produce many heartfelt examples to prove their point."

'Nothing Personal'

One such example is Andy Lennox, the landlord at the Old Thatch pub in Wimborne, Dorset, and the organiser of the "No Labour MPs" initiative. Lennox states he has handed out notices to nearly 1,000 venues and is mailing 100 more every day.

His protest has received support from several high-profile figures, such as television presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who runs a pub called the Farmer's Dog, and pop star Rick Astley, who part-owns a bar in north London—although the latter has clarified he will not formally bar Labour MPs.

"We have pleaded for support for a very long time," said Lennox, who is demanding a short-term VAT reduction. "The Treasury is dressing this up as a relief package but that's not what people are seeing, and that is the thing that has angered so many people."

A number within the hospitality trade think a protest banning individual politicians is could be counterproductive. "It's questionable it's a wise move to ban the precise representatives we should be trying to engage with and speak to," commented Corbett-Collins.

When asked this week, the government department spoke of the assistance being made available to hospitality. "We are supporting pubs, restaurants and cafes with the budget's £4.3bn investment. This is in addition to our efforts to simplify licensing, keeping our cut to alcohol duty on draught pints, and limiting corporation tax," a official stated.

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