Last week, James Fowler, owner of the Larder House in Southbourne, started the movement with a sign on his door barring Labour MPs in protest of the Government’s Budget and the rising burden of business rates.
Fowler said the decision reflects deepening concerns about the sustainability of the sector.
The ‘No Labour MPs’ poster and sticker are available to download on Wonky Table, here.
“Something needs to be done. We are raising our voices and kicking back at the Government. This is a clear direct message back to them by affecting MPs on the ground,” he said.
The action has since gained national traction, with a growing number of operators across the country joining the fight, describing the situation as a tipping point for hospitality.
In total, there are 404 Labour MPs. Below, The MA has rounded up images of Keir Starmer’s 22-strong Cabinet.
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Owner of the Perry Hill pub in south east London, which won Best Pub for Families at this year’s Great British Pub Awards, Phil Sutton, told The MA the his rateable value was expected to rise from £37,200 to £70,000, staggered over the next three years, with a 92% rise next year.
Massive hole
He said: “There may be further relief on this but the Government can’t seem to get their own worked examples and calculators to agree on this so we aren’t holding our breath.”
He added the tax hike would carve a “massive hole” in the businesses profitability.
“We have gone from being in a position where, for the first time since Covid, we were starting to put money in the bank and think about growth.
“This, along with other cost increases, has put paid to that and we are preserving cash wherever we can to ensure we can stay solvent in case any further headwinds come our way.
“We were promised a long overdue reform of business rates, which is certainly what we have got, but they have been changes that will destroy more of the high street and close local pubs”, he continued.
Brutally simple
Meanwhile, managing director of The Three Hills at Barlow in Cambridge, Emma Harrison, said business rates at the award-winning pub will jump by 123% when the current 40% relief is discontinued.
At the same time, the pub faces a substantial rise in minimum wages of 8.5% for 18–20-year-olds, who make up a significant share of the workforce. This week, the managing director wrote to the pub’s local MP to highlight these challenges.
“There is no room left to absorb increases of this magnitude”, Harrison told The MA.
“The outcomes are brutally simple: prices will have to rise sharply, leading to reduced sales and further pub closures, or pubs will close anyway.
“For a sector that contributes so much socially, culturally and economically, these increases are not just unsustainable - they are existential. If the Government does not address the system’s structural unfairness, there will simply be fewer pubs left to tax.”
Full list of Labour MPs here:
Jack Abbott, Debbie Abrahams, Dr Zubir Ahmed, Luke Akehurst, Bayo Alaba, Dan Aldridge, Douglas Alexander, Heidi Alexander, Sadik Al-Hassan, Rushanara Ali, Tahir Ali, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Callum Anderson, Fleur Anderson, Tonia Antoniazzi, Dr Scott Arthur, Jess Asato, James Asser, Jas Athwal, Catherine Atkinson, Lewis Atkinson, Calvin Bailey, Olivia Bailey, David Baines, Alex Baker, Richard Baker, Alex Ballinger, Antonia Bance, Paula Barker, Lee Barron, Alex Barros-Curtis, Johanna Baxter, Danny Beales, Lorraine Beavers, Apsana Begum, Torsten Bell, Hilary Benn, Clive Betts, Polly Billington, Matt Bishop, Olivia Blake, Rachel Blake, Chris Bloore, Elsie Blundell, Kevin Bonavia, Jade Botterill, Sureena Brackenridge, Jonathan Brash, Phil Brickell, Chris Bryant, Julia Buckley, Richard Burgon, Maureen Burke, David Burton-Sampson, Dawn Butler, Ian Byrne, Liam Byrne, Ruth Cadbury, Nesil Caliskan, Sir Alan Campbell, Irene Campbell, Juliet Campbell, Dan Carden, Sam Carling, Al Carns, Sarah Champion, Bambos Charalambous, Luke Charters, Feryal Clark, Ben Coleman, Jacob Collier, Lizzi Collinge, Tom Collins, Liam Conlon, Sarah Coombes, Andrew Cooper, Dr Beccy Cooper, Yvette Cooper, Deirdre Costigan, Pam Cox, Neil Coyle, Jen Craft, Mary Creagh, Stella Creasy, Torcuil Crichton, Judith Cummins, Chris Curtis, Janet Daby, Sir Nicholas Dakin, Ashley Dalton, Emily Darlington, Jonathan Davies, Paul Davies, Shaun Davies, Alex Davies-Jones, Marsha De Cordova, Josh Dean, Kate Dearden, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Jim Dickson, Anna Dixon, Samantha Dixon, Anneliese Dodds, Helena Dollimore, Stephen Doughty, Peter Dowd, Graeme Downie, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Dame Angela Eagle, Maria Eagle, Cat Eccles, Lauren Edwards, Sarah Edwards, Clive Efford, Damien Egan, Maya Ellis, Chris Elmore, Kirith Entwistle, Florence Eshalomi, Bill Esterson, Chris Evans, Miatta Fahnbulleh, Hamish Falconer, Linsey Farnsworth, Josh Fenton-Glynn, Mark Ferguson, Patricia Ferguson, Natalie Fleet, Emma Foody, Catherine Fookes, Paul Foster, Vicky Foxcroft, Mary Kelly Foy, Daniel Francis, James Frith, Gill Furniss, Barry Gardiner, Dr Allison Gardner, Anna Gelderd, Alan Gemmell, Gill German, Tracy Gilbert, Preet Kaur Gill, Becky Gittins, Mary Glindon, Ben Goldsborough, Jodie Gosling, Georgia Gould, John Grady, Lilian Greenwood, Dame Nia Griffith, Amanda Hack, Louise Haigh, Sarah Hall, Fabian Hamilton, Paulette Hamilton, Emma Hardy, Carolyn Harris, Lloyd Hatton, Helen Hayes, Tom Hayes, Claire Hazelgrove, John Healey, Sir Mark Hendrick, Dame Meg Hillier, Chris Hinchliff, Jonathan Hinder, Sharon Hodgson, Rachel Hopkins, Claire Hughes, Alison Hume, Dr Rupa Huq, Patrick Hurley, Imran Hussain, Leigh Ingham, Natasha Irons, Sally Jameson, Dan Jarvis, Terry Jermy, Adam Jogee, Dame Diana Johnson, Kim Johnson, Darren Jones, Gerald Jones, Lillian Jones, Ruth Jones, Sarah Jones, Gurinder Singh Josan, Sojan Joseph, Warinder Juss, Chris Kane, Mike Kane, Satvir Kaur, Liz Kendall, Afzal Khan, Naushabah Khan, Stephen Kinnock, Jayne Kirkham, Gen Kitchen, Sonia Kumar, Uma Kumaran, Peter Kyle, Laura Kyrke-Smith, Peter Lamb, David Lammy, Ian Lavery, Noah Law, Kim Leadbeater, Brian Leishman, Emma Lewell, Andrew Lewin, Clive Lewis, Simon Lightwood, Rebecca Long Bailey, Josh MacAlister, Alice Macdonald, Andy MacNae, Justin Madders, Shabana Mahmood, Seema Malhotra, Amanda Martin, Rachael Maskell, Keir Mather, Alex Mayer, Douglas McAllister, Kerry McCarthy, Martin McCluskey, Dame Siobhain McDonagh, Andy McDonald, Chris McDonald, John McDonnell, Blair McDougall, Lola McEvoy, Pat McFadden, Alison McGovern, Alex McIntyre, Gordon McKee, Kevin McKenna, Catherine McKinnell, Jim McMahon, Anna McMorrin, Frank McNally, Kirsty McNeill, Anneliese Midgley, Ed Miliband, Julie Minns, Navendu Mishra, Abtisam Mohamed, Perran Moon, Jessica Morden, Stephen Morgan, Grahame Morris, Joe Morris, Margaret Mullane, Luke Murphy, Chris Murray, Ian Murray, James Murray, Katrina Murray, Luke Myer, James Naish, Connor Naismith, Lisa Nandy, Kanishka Narayan, Pamela Nash, Josh Newbury, Samantha Niblett, Charlotte Nichols, Alex Norris, Melanie Onn, Dame Chi Onwurah, Dr Simon Opher, Abena Oppong-Asare, Kate Osamor, Kate Osborne, Tristan Osborne, Taiwo Owatemi, Sarah Owen, Darren Paffey, Andrew Pakes, Matthew Patrick, Michael Payne, Stephanie Peacock, Jon Pearce, Matthew Pennycook, Toby Perkins, Jess Phillips, Bridget Phillipson, David Pinto-Duschinsky, Lee Pitcher, Jo Platt, Luke Pollard, Joe Powell, Lucy Powell, Gregor Poynton, Peter Prinsley, Richard Quigley, Yasmin Qureshi, Steve Race, Connor Rand, Andrew Ranger, Angela Rayner, Mike Reader, Steve Reed, Ellie Reeves, Rachel Reeves, Joani Reid, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Reynolds, Martin Rhodes, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Jake Richards, Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, Lucy Rigby, Marie Rimmer, Dave Robertson, Tim Roca, Matt Rodda, Sam Rushworth, Sarah Russell, Tom Rutland, Oliver Ryan, Sarah Sackman, Dr Jeevun Sandher, Louise Sandher-Jones, Michelle Scrogham, Mark Sewards, Naz Shah, Baggy Shanker, Michael Shanks, Tulip Siddiq, Josh Simons, Andy Slaughter, John Slinger, Cat Smith, David Smith, Jeff Smith, Nick Smith, Sarah Smith, Karin Smyth, Gareth Snell, Alex Sobel, Euan Stainbank, Sir Keir Starmer, Jo Stevens, Kenneth Stevenson, Elaine Stewart, Will Stone, Alistair Strathern, Wes Streeting, Alan Strickland, Graham Stringer, Kirsteen Sullivan, Dr Lauren Sullivan, Peter Swallow, Sir Mark Tami, Mike Tapp, Alison Taylor, David Taylor, Rachel Taylor, Fred Thomas, Gareth Thomas, Nick Thomas-Symonds, Adam Thompson, Emily Thornberry, Dr Marie Tidball, Sir Stephen Timms, Jessica Toale, Dan Tomlinson, Jon Trickett, Henry Tufnell, Anna Turley, Matt Turmaine, Karl Turner, Laurence Turner, Derek Twigg, Liz Twist, Harpreet Uppal, Tony Vaughan, Valerie Vaz, Chris Vince, Christian Wakeford, Imogen Walker, Chris Ward, Melanie Ward, Paul Waugh, Chris Webb, Michelle Welsh, Catherine West, Andrew Western, Matt Western, Michael Wheeler, John Whitby, Jo White, Katie White, Nadia Whittome, David Williams, Steve Witherden, Sean Woodcock, Rosie Wrighting, Yuan Yang, Mohammad Yasin, Steve Yemm, and Daniel Zeichner.
