Gareth Davies

As always, it is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dr Huq. I congratulate the hon. Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) on opening the debate—as a former Welsh rugby player, she certainly knows what to do with a loose ball. I speak for the whole Chamber when I say what a pleasure it is to see the hon. Member for Blackpool South (Chris Webb) in his place. He has been a long-standing champion of the hospitality industry. He serves as chairman of the APPG, and records show that he has been quite consistent on this subject, so I pay tribute to him. He gave an excellent speech. In fact, with all the talk of cutting taxes on business and slashing VAT, which is of course a tax that we are now free to set ourselves following our departure from the European Union, as the MP for Grantham I can tell the hon. Member that Margaret Thatcher would have been proud of his speech—maybe that is an endorsement he can put on his leaflet in Blackpool. We will see. Every Member gave a fantastic speech, but it is fair to say that we do not spend enough time in this place talking about the businesses where so many people spend their evenings and weekends. As has been rightly pointed out, there are approximately 170,000 hospitality businesses in the UK, almost all of which are small businesses. They provide 2.6 million jobs, spread throughout every corner of our country. They are economically vital, providing 4% of our economic output, but like so many other businesses across the country, as has been eloquently pointed out from all sides of the Chamber, the sector is certainly suffering. My hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) pointed out that his constituents are suffering just as others are in Wimbledon—in fact, the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) speaks with great authority in this area as the owner of hospitality businesses. When he speaks on this matter, we should all listen. I have been struck by the number of examples that Members from all parties have provided. We all share the desire to help pubs, restaurants and cafés so that they thrive. I am particularly delighted that a Labour Member secured this debate to call for tax cuts on businesses, which the Conservative party of course agrees with. I hope we can agree, as a general principle, that businesses are taxed too much, and that that has a significant negative impact.