Rachel Reeves will end up asking you, the taxpayer, to pay for Labour’s mistake

Few industries will emerge unscathed from ’ brutal budget. As if her tax smash and grab wasn’t bad enough, Labour’s employment rights bill is set to deepen the misery. Just this week, speaking to our podcast ‘’, care home chief executive and serial entrepreneur Robert Kilgore warned that the government’s economic agenda could end up killing the care home. As if things weren’t tough enough for pensioners, their hopes of a comfortable and dignified final few years are receding into the distance.

The latest industry to warn of impending doom is Britain’s beloved seaside piers. These iconic institutions and the towns they are attached to have had a challenging time since cheap and easy European became available. But there have been successful attempts at regeneration and revival. Look at the brilliant work of Phillip Miller, who has almost single handedly transformed Southend-on-Sea with his Adventure Island theme park and aquarium.

Labour’s economic agenda will hit industries like these particularly hard. Like much of hospitality, they depend on part time, often irregular or seasonal labour. Particularly younger employees at or around minimum wage. They are also energy-intensive.

So take Labour’s mad dash for net zero, their increase in the minimum wage, the increase to (and cut to the threshold at which employers pay), and throw in an employment rights bill that will make short term or flexible working more difficult and you have a perfect storm descending on our seaside towns.

For piers or other attractions that are family businesses, they are also staring down the barrel of the reduction in business property relief — a tax change which should be receiving the same attention as its equally cruel cousin the family farm .

Now I know of nobody who wouldn’t like to see cleaner or an increase in pay for the lowest paid. But Labour’s clueless cabinet have no business experience and therefore no idea just how much damage they are doing with their changes.

What may look good on paper, and may sound good at dinner parties, is going to cripple British business. For example, Bournemouth and Cromer piers have warned that they will reduce seasonal staffing levels by 20% over summer. How dare Labour claim to be the party of working people, when it’s working people who are suffering from their plans?

There is always the hope that the natural resilience and ingenuity of British business will find a way through. But every time that government decides to increase their burdens rather than reduce them, that hope diminishes.

And as our seaside towns start to struggle, you can bet that Labour’s response won’t be to reverse their changes. Instead they’ll come after our foreign holidays. Holiday at home, we will be instructed, as Labour whacks up air passenger duty as they demand we pay to rectify their mistakes. And as always, none of this will satisfy the unions – they’ll always come back for more.