Dipping economy and rising taxes are toxic holiday mix for Britain's Keir Starmer

For British Prime Minister Keir Starmer the turn of the year will mark a grim end to a dismal 12 months for his government and its supporters.

There are warnings of further misery with even hospitality emerging from its busiest period unhappy with Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s treatment of its businesses. The industry is furious that on the one hand, the Chancellor committed to helping the retail and hospitality sectors while on the other, a property tax revaluation will hit restaurants especially hard. From April, business rates will soar by 76 per cent for an average pub and 116 per cent for a hotel, whereas large supermarkets will pay four per cent extra and distribution warehouses, seven per cent.

A protest against inequality at London Ritz hotel's Christmas tree. Take Back Power/PA Wire

In many cases, hospitality in Britain was already struggling under higher costs, fallout from the pandemic and people reducing their alcohol intake. Young people in particular are altering their lifestyles, spending more time in gyms and healthy pursuits, and drinking less.

Labour’s critics say Reeves and her boss Starmer are not listening. They see the moves as further evidence that they simply do not get business, despite overtures to the contrary before they came into office; or rather, that they go out of their way to please some businesses – the large, trendy ones, hence the lower rise for online storage depots – but not others.

Starmer has failed to make any personal headway even after the budget in November that went down well with Labour’s core and the financial markets.

Instead he is back to where he was, arguably in weaker shape. It is a pattern that has typified his administration, of stepping forward only to quickly reverse. Try as Starmer might, he seems incapable of getting off the bottom and lifting his dismal approval rating.

He has four months to turn it around, before voters go to the polls in local council elections and show what they think of his reign so far. Starmer is not the only party leader whose fate might hang on the results.

For the Tories, Kemi Badenoch has every reason