Rachel Reeves has been accused of waging a “soul destroying” war on Britain’s pubs by landlord Maureen Loseby.
Speaking to GB News, the owner of The Rock Inn in Bramley hit out at the Chancellor for “ridiculous” costs placed on the nation’s boozers, dismissing reports of a possible Labour U-turn.
Telling GB News Yorkshire and Humberside Reporter Anna Riley that she has banned the Chancellor from her pub, Ms Loseby fumed: “I just think that she’s trying to finish off pubs altogether. I don’t think they want people in pubs talking to each other, saying how bad things have got.
“This Government have not stood by what they offered in the mandates before they were elected. The Tories said that Maggie Thatcher wasn’t for turning, well, Rachel Reeves is just spinning.”
Stressing how important her pub is to the community, providing a hub for locals for 40 years, Ms Loseby said: “This is why I’m upset, because it is a community hub, and it’s the customers who are suffering.
“They can’t afford to come out. I’ve still got the same customers, but once they used to come out twice, three times a week, now they can only come out once or twice if they’re lucky. They just can’t afford to do it.”
She added: “All the bills they’ve got to pay, everything’s gone up – electric has gone up, gas has gone up, everything in the shops, price of food for them to pay.
“So I’ve got some customers who work, and they’re the ones who are suffering.”
Pub landlord Maureen Loseby has hit out at Rachel Reeves’s ‘soul destroying’ war on pubs and the Government giving ‘all our money to the illegals’
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GB NEWS
Asked by Anna what support she would like to see from the Government, the landlord took aim at the soaring costs of running her pub: “We’re struggling with electric, we’re struggling with gas, you can’t expect someone to come and sit in your pub and be cold.
“So I just want more help, whatever they can do instead of giving our money away.”
She told GB News: “I’ll help anybody, but all our money’s going on to illegal people coming into the country and getting more than the people who already live here, and I don’t agree with it.”
Asked for her thoughts on Labour’s proposed plan to extend opening hours for hospitality venues, Ms Loseby swiped: “Extending hours is a stupid idea, because if they can’t afford to come for the hours that we’ve got, why would you want to extend them? That’s not going to help us.”
A Labour minster has claimed there will be a ‘U-turn on pubs’ when it comes to the Chancellor’s business tax relief plans | GETTY / PA
Reflecting on how much the industry has changed in her 40 years running The Rock Inn, Ms Loseby said: “Even just in the last five years, it’s changed so much.
“This is my third pub in Leeds, but I’ve been in this one, this year, coming up 40 years, and the difference is unbelievable.
“It’s sad. People used to be coming in and having a laugh, and everybody who seems to be coming in now are all upset about what’s happening in the country.”
GB News understands the Chancellor is gearing up to dial back the business-rate relief for the hospitality industry.
Instead, the relief is expected to be extended in a bid to assist locally-loved pubs up and down the nation – many of which have unleashed fury against the Labour Government.
Ms Loseby told GB News that her pub has been a ‘community hub’ for locals for 40 years
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GB NEWS
Businesses across the country are now awaiting confirmation of the Government’s plans, with industry groups saying any announcement must recognise the scale of the pressures facing the high street.
Speaking to the People’s Channel last week, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch hit out at Labour for “hammering” Britain’s pubs amid a reversal of the latest set of hospitality tax hikes.
Mrs Badenoch said: “Labour MPs have come back from Christmas break where they were banned from every single pub in the country, and they suddenly realised that people don’t like them. That’s why they’re pushing for this U-turn.
“Conservatives saw this as soon as it happened. Remember my Budget speech and I talked about how Rachel had done absolutely nothing for pubs? Well, the chickens have come home to roost.”