The British public will not stand for “fun police” nanny state regulations by the leftist Labour Party, Reform UK’s Nigel Farage said, predicting voters will “rebel” if the government attempts to limit pub hours.
Mr Farage, a proud pub-goer who is often seen with a pint in hand and a cigarette hanging from his lips, has warned that Sir Keir Starmer’s “all out war against happiness” will spark a backlash from the British people.
On top of plans to ban smoking in beer gardens, reports this week from the Labour Party conference emerged that public health ministers are considering placing limits on operating hours of bars and pubs to save the UK’s nationalised healthcare system money.
Responding to the purported plans from “boring middle manager” types in the leftist government, Nigel Farage wrote in The Telegraph that the Labour Party is captured by the “mindset of control” which believes that “Big Government knows best”.
“It is completely detached from reality and it despises the notions of freedom and choice,” the MP said.
The populist leader, who’s Reform UK party has set its sights on dethroning Labour at the next general election, said that voters in the Brexit-backing “Red Wall” regions and elsewhere “detest being told what to do” and “would never stand for pubs closing early… They will rebel.”
“Those of them who bothered to vote Labour in July will desert the party at the next election. It should not escape their attention that the Reform Party isn’t interested in banning things. I believe that life is for living and enjoying when time allows – and that pubs can keep whatever reasonable hours they wish,” Farage wrote.
In addition to representing a fundamental attack on liberty, the Brexit boss warned that nanny state regulations on pubs would only serve to foster a “new era of the speakeasy” in which revellers turn to underground operations rather than resigning themselves to ending a night out early.
“At the same time, the Treasury would notice a fall in revenue until, finally, scores more pubs went out of business. This in itself would have various knock-on effects, creating wider unemployment,” he argued.
British pubs, which Mr Farage has previously described as “parliaments” for common people to come and discuss issues of the day, are already facing heavy burdens from the government, including high taxes and and onerous state regulations.
The staple of British life is also still reeling in the wake of government lockdown restrictions during the Chinese coronavirus crisis, which forced hundreds if not thousands of pubs to shut their doors permanently.
Mr Farage noted: “The sense of liberty that we used to take for granted is slipping away, no doubt hastened by the ghastly lockdown culture that Labour embraced so vigorously.”
Indeed, the reported impetus for Public Health Minister Andrew Gwynne suggestion of closing pubs early was warnings about alcohol-related illnesses from England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, one of the chief architects of the draconian lockdown rules during the coronavirus.
Aside from pushback from libertarian figures such as Mr Farage, there does appear to be some resistance from within the Labour government against the attack on pubs, with Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden saying that he would “table an emergency resolution” at the party’s conference in Liverpool to block any move to introduce hours restrictions on pubs or bars.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman also claimed that it is “categorically untrue” that the government is planning on changing alcohol licensing hours.