Commercial Director & MD, politico, Views expressed are my own. RT not an endorsement.
Preston Lancashire UK
Joined July 2011
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Warren Bennett retweeted
A bitterly disappointing budget for #pubs.
Considering the Prime Minister’s claim that “cavalry is coming” for pubs, what happened? Who ambushed them?!
Not only no real help but #Budget2026 increases costs for at least 95% of UK pubs.
As bad as any budget in recent years.
Warren Bennett retweeted
@KemiBadenoch wiping the floor with him - about his failure today to do on defence spending what he said in June was essential.
Warren Bennett retweeted
I’m wondering where the cavalry for hospitality is @andyburnham ?
Don’t talk about business rates. Removing business rates for those rates under 18k is a JOKE when our rates were changed from 18.5 to 73.5k less than a year ago!!
Warren Bennett retweeted
So inept idiot John Healey is about to increase duty on a pint from 50p to 52p.
Why can’t he slap taxes on sweet shops, vape shops, Kurdish barbers, nail bars and tattoo parlours instead?
Not to mention those several, vast sweet shops on Oxford Street and across London.
They’re money laundering operations!
Labour claims to be the party of workers but fuel, beer, food, and energy costs have all risen under their rule.
Warren Bennett retweeted
Chancellor John Healey is set to hike alcohol duty and slap 2p on every pint in the Budget. 🍺
The government takes over 10 times more than the pub owner. The cost of living crisis is a cost of government taxation of small businesses crisis.
Warren Bennett retweeted
I swear they better pull a rabbit of a hat tomorrow when it comes to hospitality or the sector is dead.
#cutvat #vatstheproblem #budget2026
Warren Bennett retweeted
The pre-pandemic rate was £8.21/hour; £13.20/hour represents a more than 60% increase in five years.
People keep saying businesses who can't pay it shouldn't employ people.
So they're not.
EXCLUSIVE
John Healey will announce plans to increase the minimum wage by nearly 4 per cent but slow the rise for young people after warnings that they are being priced out of jobs
The Times has been told that the national living wage, which applies to those aged 21 and over, is expected to rise from £12.71 to around £13.20 — an increase of 3.9 per cent
However, Healey has decided not to repeat the big rises of the past two budgets in the national minimum wage, which applies to those aged 18 to 21
It will rise broadly in line with the rate for older workers - from £10.85 to around £11.27, an increase of 3.9 per cent
It effectively spells the end of Labour’s manifesto pledge to bring the “discriminatory” minimum wage for young people into line with the living wage for older workers in this parliament
The minimum wage increased by 26 per cent between 2025 and 2026, leading to stark warnings from employers that it risked impeding efforts to get 1 million “Neets” - young people not in education, employment or training - into work.
Healey alluded to the approach in an interview with The Times last week, in which he spoke of the importance of the “trade-off between the level of the minimum wage and the employment rate”
thetimes.com/article/c9142a2…
Warren Bennett retweeted
How any Chancellor can look at the state of the economy, the job losses, struggling businesses and sectors like Hospitality, and think, let’s increase their wage bills AGAIN… is totally beyond me.
This is a deliberate demolition of small businesses.
RIP THE ECONOMY 🪦
EXCLUSIVE
John Healey will announce plans to increase the minimum wage by nearly 4 per cent but slow the rise for young people after warnings that they are being priced out of jobs
The Times has been told that the national living wage, which applies to those aged 21 and over, is expected to rise from £12.71 to around £13.20 — an increase of 3.9 per cent
However, Healey has decided not to repeat the big rises of the past two budgets in the national minimum wage, which applies to those aged 18 to 21
It will rise broadly in line with the rate for older workers - from £10.85 to around £11.27, an increase of 3.9 per cent
It effectively spells the end of Labour’s manifesto pledge to bring the “discriminatory” minimum wage for young people into line with the living wage for older workers in this parliament
The minimum wage increased by 26 per cent between 2025 and 2026, leading to stark warnings from employers that it risked impeding efforts to get 1 million “Neets” - young people not in education, employment or training - into work.
Healey alluded to the approach in an interview with The Times last week, in which he spoke of the importance of the “trade-off between the level of the minimum wage and the employment rate”
thetimes.com/article/c9142a2…
Warren Bennett retweeted
When politicians like Angela Rayner talk about “an honest conversation” that means lying through her teeth.
Warren Bennett retweeted
Angela Rayner can’t name a single pound of spending that Labour will cut - not one! 🤯
We are £3 trillion in debt, borrowing more just to pay the interest.
Get a grip.
Warren Bennett retweeted
Angela Rayner now admits Labour's promise to build 1.5 million homes was "always a stretch target".
Translation: they knew it would never happen and said it anyway to get your vote.
Every pledge is a lie. Every single one.
Warren Bennett retweeted
This is yet another example of Burnham’s foot in mouth syndrome. He hasn’t thought this through or the implications.
Most people who voted for Brexit did so because they didn’t want free movement. Too many politicians have failed to understand the significance and impact of immigration on communities.
We have had more than enough experience of what happens when politicians (including previous Conservative governments) promise control but fail to deliver it. The answer is to learn from those mistakes, not reopen free movement.
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: Andy Burnham has opened the door to Britain readopting the European Union’s free movement rules, arguing that an “honest discussion” is needed, reports @benrileysmith
Warren Bennett retweeted
Andy Burnham says he wants to be honest with the British public about his views on the future of the UKs relations with the EU.
He wasn’t with his own people in Makerfield during the by-election. Why should he treat us any differently.
Warren Bennett retweeted
Last night was the Conservatives’ best in a long time: four wins from five contests, three of them gains.
That takes them to 29 wins since May’s local elections, more than any other party (Reform 26, Labour 26, Lib Dems 24).
Warren Bennett retweeted
I actually have a grudging respect for Burnham's approach to being PM. He clearly doesnt give a shit, he is just using it as a grift to live his best life, normally being PM ruins the holders life, they leave looking haunted - he is going to leave with a bendy bully and a perm.
Warren Bennett retweeted
Of course we want to deliver the 100,000 jobs @UKHofficial has pledged. Of course we can.
But hospitality had already lost an estimated 100,000 jobs following Labour’s October 2024 Budget. We’d be rebuilding employment we’ve already lost.
If this Labour government thinks for one second that hospitality has the money sitting around to fund another 100,000 jobs without cutting VAT, it’s got another thing coming.
Businesses are fighting to pay the staff they’ve still got. A press release doesn’t pay wages.
I understand showing willing. We want to give young people opportunities. But UKHospitality’s response should have been clear:
“Yes, we’ll deliver 100,000 jobs. Cut VAT in line with Europe and give us the means to do it.”
You cannot keep taxing employment out of existence then expect applause for asking us to create it again.
#Hospitality #VatinlinewithEurope
Warren Bennett retweeted
Finally. Labour spent 2 years faffing about to make a decision which Conservatives had already approved 2 years ago.
If they’d done this in the summer we’d have had that gas heating British homes this Christmas.
An unnecessary waste of time and money by a party that puts its own interest above the country’s.
UK government gives go-ahead for gas production from Jackdaw field in North Sea bbc.in/4yzB0mv
Warren Bennett retweeted
Sacha Lord clearlythinks that no-one in hospitality can see that his loyalty to Andy Burnham is more important than his supposed passion for hospitality.
I keep being asked if Hospitality is going to get a VAT reduction in the Budget.
Whilst I absolutely think we should, I just honestly can't see it.
The war in Iran has cost the UK billions.
I do think we will get a reduction in the near future, but right now, the moneys not there.
My guess is something to encourage employers to get NEETS into our sector...maybe around National Insurance.
Warren Bennett retweeted
Pathetic, meaningless address from President Macron to the people of France tonight. The anger here is palpable. I have written what it all means in a column in tomorrow’s Daily Mail. L’agonie de la France is set to continue and Macron is now an irrelevance.
