‘Hospitality is simple – politics is not,’ says Mike Olley in an impassioned plea to see pubs, restaurants, bars and clubs thrive

Hospitality is one of the most brutally simple sectors in the economy.

Money in. Costs out. Margin left or not.

You can wrap it in policy language, industrial strategy, fiscal recalibration, whatever phrase is fashionable this week, but at midnight, when the doors are shut and the books are open, there are only numbers.

And those numbers are getting harder.

Energy costs remain punishing. Labour costs are rising. Employer National Insurance has increased. Wage floors have moved up. Business rates still bite. Footfall is fragile. Disposable income is tight.

Now, to be fair, the Labour Party is not doing nothing. There is continued business rates relief. There are promises of reform to make rates fairer. There are support packages for pubs and live music venues. There are licensing reviews and energy advice schemes.

None of that is imaginary. Some of it is well-intentioned.

But here is the problem.

Hiking National Insurance is a deed that needs undoing

At the same time as offering relief in one area, Labour has raised employer National Insurance and lowered the threshold at which it applies. It has increased minimum wage rates in a sector where labour is the single largest cost. It is consulting on new visitor levies. It is constantly adjusting the framework.

So yes, something is being given. But something else is being taken away.

And when operators add it up, it does not amount to a hell of a beans.

This is starting to feel like energy bills

Hospitality people understand this instinctively because they are living it.

Energy bills used to be simple. One tariff. One rate. You might not like it, but you understood it.

Now we have energy companies run by accountants without ties, flogging jungles of tariffs, standing charges, time of use structures and green add-ons. It is all technically rational. It is all well explained in PDF documents. But nobody truly understands it.

What they do understand is that they are paying too much.

That is how hospitality now feels about government support.

There is relief here. Reform there. A taskforce somewhere else. A promise of change next year. A consultation on a levy. A review of a multiplier. A cap on a discount.

But at the end of the trading week, when you compare last year’s margin to this year’s, you are not better off.

‘I was a pot-wash once – powered by After Eights’

Hospitality teaches you early that small comforts matter. For me it was an After Eight after hours at the sink. Not greed. Just a reminder that you are human.

What the sector wants from politics is the same thing. Something tangible. Something felt. Something simple enough to understand without a Treasury briefing.

Complexity has become a substitute for impact. And complexity blunts trust.

Why Reform cuts through

This is the uncomfortable bit.

Especially if, like me, you are a Labour member who wants Labour to get this right.

The Reform UK approach to hospitality is not wrapped in technocratic language. It is blunt.

Lower hospitality VAT.

Lower alcohol duty.

Lower employer tax.

Radically cut or scrap business rates for pubs.

That is it.

No licensing sprint. No phased consultation. No multi layer adjustment.

You do not need an accountant to decode it. A landlord can hear it and answer one question immediately.

Would I be better off.

That simplicity is powerful. It cuts through the fog.

And that is before you get to something symbolic but revealing.

‘Backing British workers’ – Reform is landing this message better than most

Reform sell a football-style shirt in Reform blue with their name across the front and their logo on the chest. It is made in Britain. Their mugs are made in Britain too.

You can roll your eyes. You can disagree with their politics. That is your right.

But think about the signal.

Coherence

This is not about merchandise as merchandise. It is about coherence. If you say you back British workers and British production, you source your own kit from Britain.

By contrast, Britain’s major political parties, including the Labour Party, have happily sold merchandise manufactured in China while talking about supporting British industry.

That jars.

We still make pottery up the road in Stoke-on-Trent. We still have textile capability. We still make football shirts. We still make mugs. The capacity exists. The skills exist.

Hospitality people understand supply chains. They understand sourcing. They understand margins. When a British party promotes itself with imported kit while talking about British jobs, something does not add up.

I buy a football shirt every season. The one I treat myself to is made in Europe. I could not tell you exactly where. But I would love to see the day when it is made here again.

That is not nostalgia. That is coherence.

And coherence resonates.

Why Labour is missing the mood

Labour is not malicious here. It is managerial.

It is trying to balance workers’ rights, fiscal constraints, local authority funding and environmental commitments all at once. That is hard.

But hospitality does not experience policy as a balancing act. It experiences it as pressure.

Hospitality can manage itself – it just need Govt to understand that

Raise wages without offsetting tax reductions and margins disappear.

Reform rates but remove discounts and the gain feels theoretical.

Offer support while introducing new levies and trust erodes.

Hospitality does not need to be managed. It needs to be understood.