'We are working people': Wolverhampton nightclub boss calls for minister to apologise over comments

A Wolverhampton pub and nightclub owner has called on a cabinet minister to apologise over her comments that employers are “not working people”.

Shaun Keasey, chairman of Wolverhampton city centre Pubwatch, said the comments by Emma Reynolds were insulting and out of touch.

Speaking during a television interview on Sunday (November 1) the Chief Secretary to the Treasury stated: “I don't think employers are working people, they are companies.”

But Mr Keasey, who owns the Gorgeous nightclub, George Wallis pub and Pop Zone bar in Wolverhampton, and Ye Olde Foundry pub in Dudley, said Wolverhampton-born Miss Reynolds clearly misunderstood the realities of running a small business.

Mr Keasey, who is also a Reform councillor in Dudley, said: “Emma Reynolds owes an apology to the thousands of hard-working business owners across this country who put everything into keeping their businesses afloat.

“Does she genuinely believe that the landlord who opens his pub in the morning, serves customers, cleans the toilets, orders the stock, pays the bills and is still working late into the evening isn't a working person simply because he employs people?”

Mr Keasey said many independent hospitality operators worked 60, 70 or even 80 hours a week.

“They take enormous financial risks, carry responsibility for their employees' livelihoods and, when times are difficult, are often the last people to get paid,” he said.

“Pubs, bars and nightclubs are already battling rising employment costs, business rates, energy bills and increasing pressure on customers' disposable incomes.

“To hear a senior treasury minister suggest that these people aren't working people is frankly astonishing.”

Mr Keasey said nobody disputed the legal distinction between employers and employees, but added that owning a business did not mean that one stopped being a hard-working individual.

He said that he would have expected Miss Reynolds, as a former Wolerhampton MP, to understand the importance of local businesses and the people who worked tirelessly to keep them operating.

“Behind every successful pub, bar, restaurant and nightclub are people who have invested their money, their time and often their entire lives into building something that provides jobs and contributes to the local economy,” he said.

“Small-business owners deserve recognition and respect from the Government, not comments that dismiss the work they do.

“I would urge Emma Reynolds to acknowledge that her remarks were ill-judged, apologise to the country's hard-working employers and recognise that business owners are working people too.”