'A tsunami wave after wave' ...100,000 jobs 'will be lost in hospitality by next Budget'

LABOUR'S devastating tax raid will claim 100,000 jobs in Britain’s pubs and restaurants, experts predict.

- Giles Sheldrick Chief Reporter

Almost 89,000 jobs have already disappeared in the once-thriving hospitality sector after Rachel Reeves ramped up employer taxes.

UKHospitality, the body representing the battered industry, says the carnage will reach six figures by the time the Chancellor delivers her autumn Budget.

Boss Kate Nicholls said: “The sector has lost jobs at a rate seven times larger than the wider economy. I predict it will be 100,000 by the Budget.”

Industry leaders fear the death knell is being sounded on great British institutions. One, Kent-based pub chain boss Phil Thorley, said: “It’s one tsunami wave after another.”

In the first Labour Budget for 14 years the Chancellor announced the rate of employer National Insurance contributions would increase by 1.2 percentage points to 15% while the earnings threshold, at which businesses start paying contributions, would fall from £9,100 to £5,000.

The destructive changes kicked in on April 6 and hit the hospitality sector hard because it has traditionally employed more lower-paid and part-time staff.