Pub licensee grills Prime Minister

A Swindon licensee managed to secure a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday, after confronting climate change secretary Ed Miliband.

John Doyle, Enterprise tenant at the Queensfield pub, bent the ear of the Prime Minister at a children's centre he was visiting in the town after explaining he was on the verge of going bankrupt for a second time — the first was not related to the pub trade.

"I was trying to put the case of the pub trade across to him," Doyle told the Morning Advertiser​, who admitted to being shocked and nervous about sitting in front of the PM.

"We are being crippled by business rates, taxes and the price we have to pay for beer. For the past 13 months, since I have been at the pub, I have not taken a wage and I have had to start a second job as a part-time cab driver. All I do is pay bills when I should be serving the community."

Doyle will owe the council around £2,000 in business rates at the end of the month but said he had been impressed by Brown. "He agreed with a lot I said and promised to help me get some free business advice," said Doyle.

"I was surprised because on TV he is portrayed as a monster. But he told me to sit down and let me let off some steam and said he would get someone to help."

However, Doyle is still unsure of who he will vote for. "I think all the parties need to realise that Britain is about small businesses. I want to know who is going to stick up for small business because without it, we have no country."

Doyle said Enterprise had helped him by way of a six-month rent reduction. "But it is still a bit heavy," he added.