Hairdressers and barbers are joining pub landlords in banning Labour MPs from their premises, as anger intensifies across the high street over business rates, rising employment costs and what some owners describe as a “betrayal” by the government.
Signs reading “No Labour MPs” have begun appearing in salon windows and barbershops, echoing a protest that has already seen more than 1,000 pubs bar parliamentarians from Keir Starmer’s party. The move follows widespread frustration with the Budget delivered by Rachel Reeves, which business groups say has piled fresh costs onto already struggling firms.
Salon owners say they feel particularly aggrieved after ministers pledged to support the high street by “levelling the playing field” between bricks-and-mortar businesses and online giants. While Reeves announced a reduction in the business rates multiplier for smaller firms, the discount amounts to just 5p — far short of the 20p cut many businesses had called for — and is being wiped out by rising rateable values.
Collette Osborne, who runs two Hairven salons in Nottinghamshire, said she had displayed a “No Labour MPs” sign after being hit with a business rates increase of more than £10,000 a year. Her local Labour MPs are Juliet Campbell and Michael Payne.
“Small businesses like mine are desperate and hanging on by a thread,” Osborne said. “Rachel Reeves promised she would act to protect high street salons, but the government now seems to have its fingers in its ears. There is no spare capacity to absorb business rate rises on top of higher wages, utilities, finance costs and Covid debt repayments.”
In London, salon owner Emma Vickery said nearly four decades of paying taxes and employing staff were being undermined by mounting costs. “It is becoming financially unsustainable,” she said. “Without urgent support or recognition of the pressures on small employers, businesses like mine will simply disappear.”
The backlash mirrors growing discontent in the hospitality sector, where pub landlords have warned that higher employer national insurance contributions and above-inflation increases in the minimum wage are accelerating closures. Some MPs, including Reeves herself, have reportedly been barred from local pubs as a result.
Toby Dicker, from the Salon Employers’ Association, said many in the sector felt particularly let down by a Labour government that had pledged to “make work pay”.
“These are decent, hard-working people — the backbone of the high street — who expected support, not a heavier tax burden,” he said. “There’s a strong sense of betrayal.”
The Conservatives have seized on the discontent. Andrew Griffith, the party’s business spokesman, said: “This government won’t listen to small businesses, so it’s no wonder salons have joined pubs in banning their Labour MP. Perhaps if ministers feel even a fraction of the misery being inflicted on high streets, things might change.”
A Labour source defended the government’s approach, saying: “The government is backing high street businesses across the country, including hairdressers and salons. That’s why the Chancellor announced a £4.3bn support package at the Budget.”
Despite that reassurance, the spread of protest signs from pubs to salons underlines the depth of anger among small business owners — and the political challenge facing Labour as it seeks to reassure the very high streets it claims to champion.
