Labour leader Keir Starmer visits The Portsmouth Distillery to rally support for independent businesses

LABOUR leader Keir Starmer has praised Portsmouth as a ‘great city’ during a visit to a distillery – and called for more people to join the News campaign to support local businesses.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Sir Keir, alongside Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan and shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds, visited The Portsmouth Distillery in Fort Cumberland on Thursday ahead of Small Business Saturday.

The party leader praised the gin-maker for using its facilities to turn out hand sanitiser during the pandemic – and said he looked forward to trying the firm’s more appetising wares.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The MP for Holborn and St Pancras said: ‘It’s always good to come to Portsmouth and to support small business.

Keir Starmer visited The Portsmouth Distillery to promote Small Business Saturday. Picture: Labour Party.Keir Starmer visited The Portsmouth Distillery to promote Small Business Saturday. Picture: Labour Party.
Keir Starmer visited The Portsmouth Distillery to promote Small Business Saturday. Picture: Labour Party.

‘(The Portsmouth Distillery) is an example of what small business in Portsmouth and elsewhere have been doing during the pandemic.

People are proud of businesses like this. They love the idea of people pulling together in times of trouble.’

He added; ‘I haven’t tried any of the gin – I have a number of meetings today so I didn’t think it was a good idea – but I’m sure I’ll try it sooner or later.’

Read More
Portsmouth Hospital University Trust chosen as hub for next week's Covid-19 vacc...
The Labour Party leader praised Portsmouth as a 'great city' during his second visit this year. Picture: Labour Party.The Labour Party leader praised Portsmouth as a 'great city' during his second visit this year. Picture: Labour Party.
The Labour Party leader praised Portsmouth as a 'great city' during his second visit this year. Picture: Labour Party.
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Labour leader encouraged more people to take part in Small Business Saturday, a campaign which promotes local shopping, as well as the News campaign to get more shoppers in local businesses.

He said: ‘We all should all be saying shop locally – safely, of course – not just this Saturday, but all of the time.

‘And The News is important – local media is really important. We need to support it. Lots of people will go first to their local outlet and trust it in a way they don’t necessarily with the national media.’

During his last visit to the city in February, Sir Keir’s travelled to The Hard to hear about the impact of Brexit on small businesses, and has previously meet with staff at Croxton’s Kitchen in Palmerston Road and The Southsea Deli in Elm Grove during the election campaign last year.

Sir Keir was shown how to bottle The Portsmouth Distillery's hand sanitiser. Picture: Labour PartySir Keir was shown how to bottle The Portsmouth Distillery's hand sanitiser. Picture: Labour Party
Sir Keir was shown how to bottle The Portsmouth Distillery's hand sanitiser. Picture: Labour Party
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Stephen Morgan said: ‘Every time Keir has visited Portsmouth he’s tried to visit a small business.

‘It’s fantastic to have a leader of the Labour Party visit Portsmouth so many times.’

Giles Collighan, one of the founders of The Portsmouth Distillery, welcomed the rallying call to support growing businesses during the pandemic – and called on politicians to tackle an issue stifling small distilleries.

Sir Keir Starmer during his visit to The Portsmouth Distillery in Fort Cumberland this week. Picture: Richard LemmerSir Keir Starmer during his visit to The Portsmouth Distillery in Fort Cumberland this week. Picture: Richard Lemmer
Sir Keir Starmer during his visit to The Portsmouth Distillery in Fort Cumberland this week. Picture: Richard Lemmer

Giles said: ‘In terms of looking to the future, one issue we would like to raise is that small brewers get a 50 per cent rate reduction – but small distillers do not, so we pay the same as a large distillery like Diageo.’

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said: ‘We are aware of it and we will see what we can do.’

With many businesses in the city concerned about Brexit’s impact, Sir Keir also stressed that any forthcoming problems are due to the government – not people ‘on the ground’ in Portsmouth.

He said: ‘What we can’t afford is for the government to turn around in January and say it’s the fault of those on the ground in places like Portsmouth – no, it is the fault of the government for not making a plan properly.

NHS Staff in Queen Alexandra Hospital were also praised by Sir Keir, who said he was aware that staff are facing a spike in seriously ill Covid-19 patients.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: ‘The first thing I’d say is thank you. It’s really tough at the moment. This has been going on for eight months and all those front-line staff have been doing this day-in, day-out...and it is really stressful.

‘What the government needs to do is to actually do good by these front-line workers and not freeze their pay.’

Sir Keir on Labour and Brexit

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer confirmed there are differing opinions within the party on its approach to voting on a Brexit deal, but stressed that a trade agreement with the European Union is ‘in the national interest’.

The comments come after reports suggested there is a split at the top of the party over whether Labour should vote for any negotiated deal in the Commons or abstain.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sir Keir said during his visit to the Portsmouth Distillery: ‘We’ll have a look at that deal as soon as we see it and make our decisions then, but I can’t emphasise enough how a deal is in the national interest.

‘We don’t know that there will be a deal – I hope there will.

‘As soon as there’s a deal we’ll look at it, but if the choice is a deal or no-deal, then a deal is obviously in the national interest.

‘The Labour Party has pulled together hugely in the last few months, presenting a strong united front, and we will do the same on this issue.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘Of course there are different opinions, as you would expect, but we will pull together, discuss it as a team and be united.’

Sir Keir on education

Sir Keir said exams should not be cancelled but urged ministers to roll out further support for children who have missed school as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

‘We can’t cancel exams – we had a complete fiasco this summer over exams and we can’t go down that route again because it would be so unfair,’ he said.

‘We’ve been calling on the government for months now to delay the exams because the obvious problems for children and young people.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘They finally got round to doing it but they need to go further because the attainment gap has got bigger during the course of this pandemic as people have been off school.

‘The government needs to put extra support in to make sure that those children who’ve lost out in these months have a fair opportunity when they get to those exams.

‘That’s where the catch-up and support for the children who have fallen further behind is so important.

‘That attainment gap has been there for a long time, which is a real problem and a failure of this government, but it’s got worse during the pandemic because children have not been able to learn in the same way from home and haven’t necessarily had the same support.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news online - as well as fewer adverts, access to our digital edition and mobile app.

For Black Friday we’ve slashed the cost of a new subscription by 30 per cent - so you can get unlimited access to our coverage for as little as £1.40 a month.