Starmer Lied to My Face Over Tax Raid, Says Hotel Owner

Hotel operator Steve Perez has claimed Sir Keir Starmer lied to his face over taxes, saying the Prime Minister pledged to reform business rates and told him he had “nothing to fear from Labour”. The Telegraph has the story.

The businessman, who runs a string of upmarket hotels and restaurants in the East Midlands, criticised the Prime Minister over the Government’s stealth raid on the hospitality sector.

Mr Perez accused Sir Keir of a betrayal. He said the Prime Minister assured him before last year’s election that he had “nothing to fear from Labour”.

In particular, Mr Perez claimed Sir Keir had pledged to reform business rates if Labour came to power, acknowledging at the time that the property tax system was damaging the hospitality sector.

However, Mr Perez – who also runs Global Brands, the drinks company behind Hooch and Franklin & Sons – said this was a lie.

Instead, he said hospitality businesses have received the “opposite of support” from Labour, which has abandoned the “very sector that keeps Britain’s high streets alive”.

His criticism stems from Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to overhaul business rates in her Budget last month, which is poised to drive up the hospitality sector’s tax bills rather than reduce them.

UKHospitality estimates that, on average, pubs will face a £1,400 rise in their property tax bill next year.

Mr Perez said one of his hotels will be struck by a £45,000 increase despite only having 27 bedrooms.

He said: “This is the straw that’s going to break the camel’s back for many hospitality businesses.

“The worst thing is, this has been done through the back door because I listened to the Budget and Rachel Reeves said it was going to be a golden era for hospitality.”

He said he was joining a growing campaign among pub and restaurant chiefs to ban Labour MPs from their premises, adding that the hospitality sector was “as angry as the farmers had been” when the Chancellor unveiled her inheritance tax raid last year.

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EppingBlogger
4 months ago

Excellent. I do not think I want to go to a bar or restaurant where I run the risk of sharing the space by a Labour politician, LibDem or any of the Uniparty.

Jack the dog
Jack the dog
4 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Agreed.

But what the hell is going to be left of England after another 3 years of this . We’ll never be able to fix it.

varmint
4 months ago
Reply to  Jack the dog

If we could represent England (UK) with a graph it would have a dinosaur shape to it. Starting thin at one end, one thousand years ago, getting much fatter to a peak in the middle (Empire) and then shrinking back down to become thin again today, and it still has not stopped getting thinner. ——-It reminds me of that Monty Python Sketch where they had a Dinosaur Theory. —-“Dinosaurs are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle and thin at the other end”

David101
4 months ago
Reply to  varmint

Exactly what IS your theory (that it is)? <cough!> “This is getting far too silly”

Gezza England
Gezza England
4 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

I dunno – you could always chuck their food over them. Better if shops refused to serve them.

transmissionofflame
4 months ago

I do hope this bloke didn’t believe him when he told him he had nothing to fear from Labour

Exile on Spencer St
4 months ago

I’m sure Sir Keir can think of what to do with all the hotels that will be closing their doors to paying customers….

JAMSTER
JAMSTER
4 months ago

I trust that Mr Perez is not at all surprised that 2TK lied to him, in such a bare-faced and calculated manner. The surprise and shock should arise if it was ever discovered that 2TK had told the truth — yes, OK, I realise that that is as unlikely as Rachel From Complaints actually learning how to run an economy or ‘Mad Ed’ Milibrain understanding basic maths. Pigs might fly one day, too.

Gezza England
Gezza England
4 months ago
Reply to  JAMSTER

Next up is an article looking into where bears shit and if popes pray.

happycake78
happycake78
4 months ago

Politicians lie who knew!

DontPanic
DontPanic
4 months ago

Not only are they to pay higher rates, already based on position and number of rooms, but also a tourist tax per night ? Don’t these councils understand that tourists create jobs and bring down unemployment.

coviture2020
coviture2020
4 months ago

Kneeler lied ? never
In kneelers world fiction is truth.

mickie
mickie
4 months ago

Welcome to the real World.

varmint
4 months ago

This guy seems fairly long in the tooth so why is he surprised that a bare faced liar lied to him?

RTSC
RTSC
4 months ago

The entire Hospitality Industry – Hotels, pubs, restaurants, cafes – should ban Labour MPs, Labour Members of the House of Frauds and their immediate families.

Make them suffer personally for their destruction of the Hospitality Industry.

Orlando
Orlando
4 months ago

Breaking news: Local finds out the hard way that politicians can’t be trusted.

Myra
4 months ago

I think the campaign of barring Labour politicians from venues has some merit. No one likes to be ostracised. It may make them think.

David101
4 months ago

As well as a stealth tax on hospitality, below the surface I get the impression of yet another attack on free speech.

Freedom of speech, debating and the exchanging of thoughts and ideas used to occur historically in the Public Square of towns and cities. After this kind of public forum had all but vanished, the talk moved inward – unofficially to pubs and taverns where us stoic, pint-wielding Brits exercised (and still do) the centuries-old tradition of having a mutual whinge and putting the world to rights.

Then of course, the talk moved online to social media and forums on the Web

But if a pub per week across the UK bites the dust, and social media and the web in general is being studiously censored… then what is left?

What is left, is much greater scope for the state to control what we see and hear and a step closer to complete socialist control