Labour needs to “change course” or risk “strangling the life” out of British businesses, shopkeepers have warned.
In a letter seen by GB News, small retailers raised grave concerns about the impending impact of Rachel Reeves’s £40billion tax raid.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is also expected to pounce on the opportunity, with Labour’s National Insurance raid and tobacco clampdown pushing voters away from Sir Keir Starmer.
The joint letter, signed by Atul Sodha of Harefield’s Londis, Kay Patel of Global Food & Wine and Best-one in London, Natalie Lightfoot of Londis in Glasgow, Neil Godhania of Nisa and Premier in Peterborough, Avtar Sidhu of Budgens in Kenilworth, Dee Sedani of One Stops in Matlock and Stoke, and Pinda Cheema of Coventry’s Costcutter, warned of a doubly-whammy hit to the industry.
“As small retailers and corner shop owners across the country,” the letter said. “We are deeply concerned about the Labour Government’s Spring Forecast and the proposed restrictions on advertising freedoms within the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, both set to be debated in Parliament on the same day.
“The Spring Forecast is unlikely to do anything to ease the financial burdens on small businesses at a time when we are already struggling with inflation, rising operational costs, and decreased consumer spending.
Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement yesterday
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“Of particular concern is the planned increase in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for employers in April, which will raise employment costs for small businesses already facing tight margins.
“This additional financial strain threatens our ability to maintain staffing levels and could force many retailers to make difficult decisions, including reducing hours or cutting jobs.”
Reeves, who announced her employers’ National Insurance Contributions increase last October, is hoping to raise £20billion by hiking the levy from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent.
Labour MPs last week also rejected amendments to provide care services and small charities with exemptions to the raid.
Turning their attention to tobacco restrictions, the shopkeepers warned: “At the same time, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill proposes stringent restrictions on how we can advertise and display tobacco and vaping products.
“These products account for a significant portion of our sales, and limiting our ability to communicate with adult consumers around safer nicotine products than cigarettes has a direct and damaging impact on our revenue.
“While we understand and support efforts to curb youth access to these products, we believe that overly restrictive advertising rules will only serve to hurt law-abiding small businesses, while illicit trade and unregulated markets continue to flourish.
Nigel Farage has been outspoken about Labour’s smoking clampdown
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“For many of us, this combination of economic and regulatory pressures amounts to a double hit to our bottom line. Small retailers are the backbone of local communities, providing essential goods, employment, and a personal level of service that larger chains simply cannot replicate.
“The Government must recognise the challenges we face and engage with us to find balanced, fair policies that protect public health without jeopardising our livelihoods.
“Please, it is not too late to change course. Do no strangle the life out of our business more than you already have.”
A clampdown on smoking could also provide Farage’s Reform UK with a major boost.
The Tobacco & Vapes Bill will ban anyone born after January 2009 from ever being able to buy cigarettes.
The Bill will also ban the advertising and sponsorship of vapes and nicotine products and allow ministers to regulate the flavours, packaging, and display of vapes so that they do not appeal to children.
“Hard-working shopkeepers uniting like this should be causing real headaches in No10,” a former Downing Street insider told GB News.
“Farage is right to point to how banning fun for adults and strangling businesses is pushing voters to Reform UK.
“Farage seems to understand the regular folk don’t want to be told off and lectured.
“Every time Labour misread the public mood like this, Farage rubs his hands with glee.”
The cigarette-smoking Clacton MP was tipped last year to benefit from Wes Streeting’s anti-smoking health push.
The Reform UK leader labelled smokers the “heroes of the nation” and vowed to “never go to the pub again if outdoor smoking is banned”.
A source close to Farage also told GB News: “Penalising hard-working Brits for enjoying a fag, or a pint, or fast food, is the kind of snobbish paternalism that drives voters insane.”
Recent polling conducted for The Sun showed that over half of Brits think Labour are anti-fun and anti-personal freedoms.
It also put Farage ahead of Starmer in 335 seats to 291 when voters were asked who would make a better Prime Minister.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch led Farage and Starmer in just six constituencies.
The People’s Channel previously revealed that Reform UK emerge as the biggest threat to Labour in the constituencies with the largest number of smokers, including in Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s home patch of Ashton-under-Lyne.
Farage is today putting pressure on Badenoch to oppose Labour’s “idiotic” tobacco legislation.
Writing in The Telegraph, the Reform UK leader said: “Make no mistake: this Bill is a disaster for anyone who cares about personal freedom, small businesses, or basic common sense. The UK is set to become the first developed country on earth to introduce a blanket ban on adults purchasing tobacco.”
GB News has approached the Treasury and the Department of Health & Social Care for comment.
