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Your report (Reform wins across northern England overturn decades of Labour control, 8 May) touched on Labour losing support among small business owners. I wanted to offer the perspective of a small independent business owner who has traditionally supported Labour.

Labour’s poor local election results may reflect a growing frustration among small business owners who no longer feel recognised as “working people”. In hospitality, hair and beauty, retail and trades, there are thousands upon thousands of us keeping local economies alive while taking home increasingly modest incomes ourselves.

Last year, our small independent restaurant in Margate turned over roughly £350,000. By the time VAT, PAYE and national insurance are accounted for, the business likely generated close to £100,000 for the Treasury.

An individual would typically need a very high salary to generate a comparable level of tax contribution. Yet despite helping generate that amount for the Treasury, my own income has now fallen below minimum wage once the hours I actually work are taken into account.

I did not become poorer because I stopped working. I became poorer while working harder than ever.

When Labour says that “those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden”, many small business owners feel despair, because our shoulders are not broad. We are exhausted. And if exhausted small businesses finally begin disappearing altogether, the Treasury will lose not only jobs and local economies, but substantial tax revenue too.

I have always considered myself a Labour supporter because I believed Labour existed to represent working people. I thought the definition included people like me. Business owners are not separate from working people. We are working people too.
Nicola Powell
Margate, Kent

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