Hairdressers across the country are now refusing to serve Labour MPs as part of a growing protest movement against the party’s tax raids.
More than 1,000 pubs had already barred Sir Keir Starmer’s MPs following Rachel Reeves’s Budget.
Barbers and salons are now following suit.
Collette Osborne, who operates two Hairven salons in Nottinghamshire, has put up a “No Labour MPs” sign at her premises.
She faces a business rates increase of more than £10,000 annually.
Ms Osborne has banned her two local MPs, Juliet Campbell and Michael Payne.
PICTURED: Barbers and hairdressers at a protest in London earlier in 2025. The industry has joined forces with pubs in protest against Labour amid surging business rates bills
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GETTY
She told GB News: “There’s no other way to actually get Labour to listen to our sector. They won’t listen.
“I actually met the Chancellor myself pre-election in 2024.
“Rachel, to my face, actually promised me that she would do something, that she would back business.
“I voted Labour because I believed what she told me… Such a senior politician giving me her absolute assurances.
“What a mistake that was!”
SMALL BUSINESSES FIGHT BACK – READ MORE:
Collette Osborne said she voted Labour because she believed what Rachel Reeves told her. ‘What a mistake that was,’ she added
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GETTYThe hairdresser had earlier told the Mail on Sunday: “I am furious that the Government now seem to have their fingers in their ears.
“There is no spare capacity to absorb business-rate increases on top of rising wages, utilities, finance costs and Covid debt repayments. So no Labour MPs are allowed.”
London hairdresser Emma Vickery has also spoken out against the government’s tax policies.
“I am proud to have supported public finances through tax and employment contributions for nearly four decades, but it is becoming financially unsustainable. Without urgent support or recognition of the challenges faced by small employers, businesses like mine will disappear,” she said.
Across the land, hospitality bosses have warned that increased National Insurance costs combined with minimum wage rises are forcing pubs to close.
Toby Dicker, from the Salon Employers’ Association, said his members had expected greater backing from Labour.
He said: “Our members are all decent, hard-working, kind people – the people who would expect a Labour Government, who triumphantly said they would ‘make work pay’, to support them for being the backbone of the high street. [They] feel betrayed.”
Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith, meanwhile, said: “This Government won’t listen to small businesses so it’s no wonder that salons have joined pubs in banning their Labour MP.
“Perhaps if they feel just a fraction of the misery that they are inflicting on Britain’s high streets, things will change,” he said.
A Labour source said: “The Government is backing high street businesses across the country, including hairdressers and salons.
“That’s why the Chancellor announced a support package worth £4.3bn at the Budget last month,” the party says.
