A Suffolk country pub has hit back at a Labour minister’s description of traditional images of Britain involving pubs, warm ale and black Labradors as a “far-right fantasy” by offering customers a free pint if they bring their dog.
The Trowel and Hammer in Cotton, Suffolk, is advertising “a free warm beer with every black labrador” on Sunday, in a tongue-in-cheek response to remarks by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, the Nature Minister and MP for nearby Suffolk Coastal.
Riddell-Carpenter said the familiar imagery of rural Britain represented a “far-right nostalgic vision” that “we don’t want to have”.
She argued that the political right could attempt to “weaponise” rural Britain at the next election and said she lies “awake at night” and “fears” what vision of the countryside could be deployed in what she described as a political battle.
The minister said she would instead campaign for Labour’s “progressive vision for the countryside”.
The comments prompted a response from Freddy Vaudrey, landlord of the Trowel and Hammer, who accused the minister of being detached from the reality facing traditional country pubs.
“It was a stupid thing to say. It wasn’t correct,” he said.
Vaudrey said he and his wife Becky had spent three years and significant sums restoring the pub, with the aim of preserving it for future generations and continuing to serve Suffolk warm ales.
The couple’s black Labrador, Philip, has also become an unlikely participant in the political row.
The pub’s Instagram account invited customers to visit “a pub that doesn’t exist” on Sunday, turning the minister’s comments into a marketing campaign centred on rural community life.
Vaudrey said Riddell-Carpenter had “picked on the countryside, which is wrong”, while arguing that political arguments should not be allowed to overwhelm the role of pubs as community spaces.
“Politics should be left out of pubs – our pub is for everyone, and we need their custom to keep our business alive,” he said.
“All people and dogs are welcome. That’s what pubs are for.”
He said the Sunday event was intended to celebrate “Suffolk and community”, rather than become a political protest.
“Sundays are for meeting friends and family, going for a country walk with your dog, enjoying some home-cooked food and then going for a lovely drink in the pub,” he said.
“We want people to enjoy their families and their dogs in the pub.”
Riddell-Carpenter later attempted to clarify her remarks after they triggered a wider backlash, including accusations that Labour “really, really hates this country”.
She said her comments had been intended to highlight the fact that “rural life isn’t always rosy and there are challenges Government can fix”.
The 40-year-old MP also insisted that she loved “pubs, pints and labradors” as well as “so much more that rural Britain is”.
She nevertheless reiterated her commitment to Labour’s political agenda, saying: “our progressive Labour vision under this Government will bring more opportunity for everyone in rural Britain”.
The dispute has also drawn intervention from Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake, who owns a Labrador.
“Labour think the countryside, the pub, the dog and the people who love them are far-right,” he said.
“Labour is taxing the pub out of existence, as part of a sustained attack on the countryside, with almost two closing every day. That is a far more pressing cause of insomnia.”
For the Trowel and Hammer, the controversy has produced an unlikely business opportunity: a free pint, a black Labrador and a very British Sunday becoming the centrepiece of a political argument about who owns the imagery of rural Britain.
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