During Covid, small businesses were often the local response. Some gave free meals to key workers. Some gave free rooms to NHS staff who were isolating so they would not take the virus home. Owners were looking after their neighbours at the same time as trying to keep the doors open.
I know that year as a restaurant owner. The government support was a first crisis package, and it did not go far enough. Hospitality was hit especially hard. Places that had been in a family for generations closed. In central London, the tourists stopped and the footfall went with them.
In 2019, small and medium-sized firms were 99.3% of private-sector businesses, employing over 16.6 million people, with turnover of about £2.2 trillion, just under half of private-sector turnover. Labour’s relationship with those firms mattered more, not less, once the outlook turned uncertain.
SME4Labour exists so small businesses can talk to the Labour Party, and to MPs, about the recovery. The Labour Excellence Awards, hosted with SME4Labour, were a way to mark the people and local parties who had made a difference, alongside the firms themselves. Nominations opened for a ceremony in central London, held when the rules allowed, at the Park Plaza on the river in Lambeth, with Angela Rayner among those due to attend.