Salons join pubs in banning Labour MPs over rate hikes

The small business revolt against Labour is spreading from pubs to barber chairs. Hairdressers and barbers are now posting "No Labour MPs" signs in their windows, joining a protest by over a thousand pubs, fueled by anger over what owners call a betrayal on business rates and rising employment costs. Salon owners cite a Budget that offered only a negligible five pence cut to the rates multiplier, a discount wiped out by higher rateable values and other spiraling expenses like wages and utilities.

Figures like Collette Osborne, facing a ten thousand pound annual rates increase for her Nottinghamshire salons, argue the government is ignoring desperate high street businesses hanging by a thread. This sentiment is echoed by industry groups who describe a strong sense of betrayal from a party that pledged support. The political fallout is immediate, with Conservatives amplifying the discontent and Labour defending its approach by pointing to a broader multi-billion pound support package announced in the Budget.

The movement underscores a deepening political crisis for Labour, as the very small businesses it claims to champion increasingly view its policies as financially unsustainable, threatening their survival and turning shop windows into platforms for protest.