In pub loving Britain, being barred from the local is the modern version of being pelted with rotten vegetables in the stocks, or perhaps the analogue equivalent of being cancelled online. So when more than a thousand boozers put stickers in their windows reading “No Labour MPs,” in protest at hikes in business rates that would have raised their taxes by an average of 76% over three years, Keir Starmer’s government knew it was in trouble — again.
While the rate rise triggered by a revaluation from favorable Covid-era levels has businesses across the UK high street groaning, pubs are particularly ticklish for a left-of-center Labour government. It doesn’t want to force even more working-class supporters into the arms of populist beer-guzzler Nigel Farage.