Jeremy King, hoteliers slam Labour over adviser saying no more restaurants

Jeremy King has publicly criticised Labour policy after an adviser was reported to have said "no more restaurants needed," a point that has prompted hotel and restaurant leaders to accuse the party of overlooking one of Britain’s largest employers as closures mount. Industry bodies and owners warn the sector is in crisis: Allen Simpson, chief executive of UKHospitality, said four businesses were closing a day in the last quarter of 2025, while UKHospitality’s own analysis, circulated before a January relief package, warned that up to 963 restaurants and 574 hotels were at risk of closure throughout 2026 and suggested six venues could close each day due to increased costs and business rates.

Ministers have announced targeted help for pubs, including a 15 per cent business rates reduction set to begin in April, and the government says it is supporting hospitality more broadly with a £4.3 billion package to limit bill increases alongside a 25 per cent cap on corporation tax. The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has "teased a support package for pubs" after a backlash in which some landlords banned Labour MPs, a campaign that industry figures say forced concessions on pandemic-era support.

On the ground, leading owner Andy Lennox, speaking from the Old Thatch in Wimborne, Dorset, rejected the pub-only approach and urged wider reform. "That 15 per cent reduction doesn’t change much in real terms for pubs. Essentially, it’s a tax bill we weren’t paying anyway," Lennox said. He called for VAT reform to 13 per cent "in line with Europe, where hospitality is valued," and added, "We need to push the Government to extend rate reform to the whole industry." Lennox said he owns both restaurants and pubs and noted the irony that "the first place to launch the 'No Labour MP' campaign was a restaurant."

UKHospitality’s chair, Kate Nicholls, welcomed emergency funding for pubs but urged faster, broader action. "The devil will be in the detail, but we need to see pace and urgency to deliver the reform desperately needed to reduce hospitality’s tax burden, drive demand, and protect jobs and growth," Nicholls said, pledging, "We will work with the Government over the next six months to hold their feet to the fire to deliver this." Nicholls also warned that "restaurants and hotels [are] facing severe challenges from successive Budgets" and need substantive cost reductions.

Trade figures underline the pressure: Express and UKHospitality singled out rising energy costs, supply costs, National Insurance and minimum wage increases as drivers of higher operating costs, while the Daily Mail reported the number of food and drink venues contracted by 0.4 per cent in the last three months of 2025. More than 130 hotel bosses wrote to Rachel Reeves saying soaring business rate bills are "the most significant challenge" facing their industry.

Commentary on LinkedIn framed the trend as political as much as economic, noting that "British hospitality, an industry employing over three million people, is facing a cost crisis" and arguing "this is not accidental" because energy bills are "four or five times higher than 2019 levels," business rates are calculated on property value rather than profitability, and "food costs have permanently reset at a higher level."

With hotel bosses and restaurateurs demanding VAT at 13 per cent and hospitality-wide business rates reform, industry leaders say the next six months — the timeframe UKHospitality set for engagement with ministers — will be decisive for whether closures slow or accelerate.