The former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has launched an attack on the Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Rayner told entrepreneurs at a conference in Liverpool that she has spoken with many business owners and understands that the Chancellor’s soaring taxes is damaging businesses and the high street and many are closing at a far more rapid pace than ever seen before.

Rayner said that Reeves constant attack on businesses with higher taxes, employers’ national insurance, business rates is risking “confidence” in politics and amongst consumers.

Rayner told the conference, “Over the last few weeks, I’ve spoken candidly with businesses in my own constituency, and many beyond it, and they say it’s a huge challenge that they’re facing, and it’s a challenge just to stay afloat.

Customers aren’t just there in the way they used to be, as business rates remain punishingly high, energy bills soar and costs in your supply chains and VAT bite.

Rayner is urging the Chancellor to produce a plan “to aid recovery, to stabilise the costs, to give businesses breathing space.

I believe the government should look at how to support the night economy to thrive once again. Not ideology but pragmatically.”

Rayner said that Reeves business rates is damaging the hospitality industry, and she noted that governments across the European Union “recognise that hospitality and nightlife required extended support – not handouts

Last October a major pub group is calling on the government to stop making “bad policy” decisions as they are “sucking cash” out of the pubs.

Jonathan Neame, the chief executive of hospitality firm and brewer Shepherd Neame told the PA news agency there is still hope in the industry.

He said that hospitality sector needs to have reduced policy action for the industry to be successful.

In the 2025 Autumn Budget the Chancellor announced increases to the employer’s national insurance and the national minimum wage which cost all businesses millions.

Neame said: “If you look at the cost rises we’ve faced, more than half of that is down to bad policy and that it is all sucking cash out of businesses like ours.

“If the Government isn’t throwing road blocks in front of pubs, we will grow and invest.

“The sector is full of opportunity and it is still an attractive area but decisions from Government have absolutely made things harder, and it is important to move on from recent negativity.”