During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday 3 September, Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle, Dr Kieran Mullan, asked Starmer how Labour’s Small Business Plan and Employment Bill would help pubs, given the sector’s ongoing struggles.
Mullan, who said he had visited several community pubs in his constituency over the summer, told the House of Commons: “Many of [the pubs I visited] told me how hard hit they have been by Labour’s job tax.
“UKHospitality estimates 80,000 jobs have already been lost and the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) estimated one pub a day would close this year. Can the Prime Minister name a single pub landlord that thinks his current Deputy Prime Minister’s Employment Bill is going to help rather than make things worse?”
In response, Starmer defended Labour’s policies, stating the Conservatives had “talked about fixing” key issues such as business rates and late payments but “never delivered.”
Hammer blow
He said: “UKHospitality (UKH) has welcomed our small business plan and that obviously applies to pubs. The reason is because it permanently lowers the business rates that they pay and it tackles late payments, something they have been asking for a very long time.”
Though while UKH has welcomed some of the measures to cut red tape and tackle late payments, the trade body recently launched its #TaxedOut campaign, calling for lower business rates and Employer’s National Insurance to boost jobs.
Launching the campaign, the trade body described last year’s Budget as “a hammer blow to hospitality,” noting the industry has lost 89,000 jobs in the past nine months, three times the rate seen in the wider economy.
According to UKH, a third of hospitality businesses are now operating at a loss and have restricted opening hours while 63% have reduced staff hours, 76% have had to increase prices and four in 10 have reduced investment.
Cost pressures
UKH chair Kate Nicholls has also previously said while some of the measures introduced by Labour have been positive, they do not offset the “immediate and mounting cost pressures” threatening to “tax [hospitality businesses] of existence.”
The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also recently showed the sector has accounted for more than half of all job losses in the UK since the last Budget in October.
Moreover, just this week pub operators from across the sector told The Morning Advertiser (The MA) the sector needed economic coherence from the 2025 Autumn Budget, set to take place on Wednesday 26 November.
Publicans demanded action on VAT, beer duty, National Insurance, and Labour’s pre-election promise of business rates reformation to ensure the survival of pubs after years of financial strain. Though many operators were sceptical about meaningful support from the fiscal address.
In a video statement released earlier this week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to “fix the foundations” of the economy while keeping a “tight grip” on day-to-day spending.
