𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Another week, another shambolic U-turn from this hopeless Government. After U-turning on their evil Family Farm Tax two days before Christmas, a tax that was driving British farmers out of business, we now hear Starmer and Reeves are gearing up to junk their disastrous business rates hike on pubs, which was driving the Great British pub out of business.

The only thing more maddening than the total incompetence of this Government is the inevitability of these U-turns. From snatching away the winter fuel allowance, to refusing to grant a national inquiry into the grooming gangs, to the farm tax and now the pub tax, as soon as the Prime Minister and Chancellor announced these dreadful policies, we Conservatives said they were not just bad ideas, but showed a fundamental lack of understanding about Britain and what our country is built on.

Labour promised change, but all they’ve brought us is change for the worse. And it’s you: Express readers – hardworking families, pensioners, young people trying to get on the jobs ladder – who are suffering as a result.

But while pubs might now be breathing a sigh of relief after this latest U-turn, it does nothing for the other businesses on our high streets who are set to be stung by Labour’s rates hike.

Pubs can’t survive in isolation. They rely on footfall, nearby shops, and a thriving town centre. If the Government finally do something to protect pubs, while letting everything around them collapse, we will still end up with decline. Why should cafés, restaurants, shops or gyms have to pay more?

Like so many of Britain’s small businesses, high streets are being treated like cash cows. This Labour Government is only interested in funding their own pet projects and more and more benefits and handouts. Ever since Labour took office, it’s as if they’ve been hell-bent on making life harder for high streets.

Businesses have had to deal with energy prices going up and up – despite Labour promising, pre-election, to bring them down. At the behest of the unions, firms are also now struggling with new red tape and regulations that will make it harder and riskier to take on employees.

And, worst of all, they’ve been clobbered with Labour’s Jobs Tax. That’s a levy on high street businesses just trying to give people jobs – something we should want more of, not less.

My first jobs were on the high street. So were many of my friends’, and I suspect many of you reading this, too. If we lose high street businesses, we don’t just lose a part of our community and local economy. We lose a first start in life for thousands of people across the country.

Unlike Labour, the Conservatives understand this. That’s why instead of attacking high streets, we’re going to back them. Starting with our Cheap Power Plan, which will put an end to the net zero dogma meaning British businesses are paying some of the highest energy rates in the developed world. Our Cheap Power Plan won’t just save the average family £165. It’s going to save the average restaurant nearly £5,000.

Next, we will abolish business rates entirely for thousands of small high street businesses. The last thing you need when you’d gone out on a limb to try and start a local shop or a restaurant is the greedy hand of the Treasury coming after you.

That’s why instead of cutting or delaying rates for small shops and hospitality venues, we’re going to get rid of them completely for businesses paying less than £110,000 in rates.

Our plans will help take the pressure off our high streets, meaning lower prices, more jobs, and fewer boarded-up shop windows where you live. And we’re going to pay for it within our Golden Economic Rule by cutting spending in places like the welfare bill and our bloated civil service.

To govern is to choose, and Labour have made their choices clear. They’re on the side of the unions and those who sit at home and refuse to work.

The Conservatives are on the side of the high street and we’re going to get Britain working again.