Hospitality Sector

John Cooper Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Cooper (Dumfries and Galloway) (Con)]

It was a great moment when my daughter pulled a pint for me as part of her duties as a barmaid in her first job as she worked her way through university. Although that job put vital cash in her pocket, it also gave her people skills and proof on her CV that she was reliable and trustworthy with cash valuable stock. Her work today is far removed from that bar, but the foundations of her career were laid there. Yet across Dumfries and Galloway, hospitality businesses tell me that they are pausing giving youngsters like my daughter that all-important first job. The increase in employer’s national insurance contributions to 15%, and the lowering to £5,000 of the secondary threshold, are Labour’s dreaded £900-a-head black spot curse on bright youngsters ready for the world of work.

In Scotland, matters are made worse by the anti-business SNP, which is not passing on moneys intended for business rate relief, and whose multiple unit pricing alcohol regime makes Scotch whisky more expensive in the land of its birth than in many other places. Shrouded in pious health messaging, MUP has had little discernible effect on problem drinking and seems more like the SNP fun police given free rein. Spirits prices are high; business spirits are low.

No doubt the wealth-finder general, the new Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister—tough on growth, tough on the causes of growth—will seek new ways to squeeze hospitality. Knowledge is knowing that the tomato is technically a fruit; wisdom is being wise enough not to put a tomato in the fruit salad. The Pensions Minister is, improbably, holding the pen on the nightmare-before-Christmas Budget. He has a lot of knowledge about taxes, but has he the wisdom not to deploy them in the growth basket?

Hospitality is a canary in the economic coalmine. The fact that pubs are closing and restaurants open only a couple of days a week at best is a leitmotif for this anti-business Government. They think that business is a dripping roast to be devoured to fund ruinous policies such as the Chagos surrender deal. Terrifyingly, hospitality is supping in the last chance saloon, but surely it is last orders for this maladroit Labour Government? Haven’t they got three homes to go to?