Owner of Yorkshire wedding venue highlighted by Keir Starmer says industry is 'sacrificial lamb' in coronavirus support

Mandy Baker-Bird, the owner of Yorkshire Wedding Barns, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, recently wrote to the Labour leader to ask for help for the wedding industry – which she said has not been able to operate since March and has received no financial assistance.

Ms Baker-Bird described her industry as a “sacrificial lamb” and said she was having to look at making redundancies in order to save her business.

The former dairy farmer told the PA News Agency she originally wrote to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who is her local MP, but received no response so she sent the email to Sir Keir who replied to say he would raise it with the Government.

Ms Baker-Bird, 55, said she had spoken to Mr Sunak previously.

She said: “Sadly his response is ‘we can’t save every business and every job’.

“I don’t see why the wedding industry has to be the collateral damage, the sacrificial lamb.

“I do feel we are a forgotten industry. Every other industry has got some sort of lifeline – pubs, restaurants, every business around us seems to have been able to open.”

Ms Baker-Bird started her weddings and events business around four years ago, after diversifying from farming, and her two event barns can hold up to 250 people.

She described her business as “thriving” before lockdown, with a fully booked diary this year and next, but said most couples had postponed or cancelled their weddings, leaving her without an income and with no help from the Government, apart from a £10,000 grant in March.

She said: “A lot of the measures the Government have introduced don’t help us. There’s no compensation out there for us. As employers we have got to provide a certain percentage of our staff’s wages, we’ve got no lifeline, it’s very difficult to provide wages when we haven’t even got an income.

“The most devastating and insulting thing is Rishi Sunak suggesting if employers are not able to make contributions, those jobs are not viable.”

She added: “It’s just not true that we’re not viable. The wedding industry contributes billions of pounds to the economy, it’s a big business. It’s just an absolute shocker.”

Ms Baker-Bird said she felt like redundancies could be her only option.

She said: “I don’t know what else we can do. We have struggled on since March and there’s no end to this at the moment.

“We have a fantastic team and I’m absolutely devastated. They’ve all got families and children and I don’t want to lose them, they don’t deserve this.”

Sir Keir quoted from Ms Baker-Bird’s email at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he “feels” for Ms Baker-Bird, before adding: “The best way forward for (her) and all other businesses in the country is if we all pull together now, get the virus down, keep the economy moving.”

Ms Baker-Bird said the response was “hugely disappointing”.

She said: “I think it’s his go-to response. This is part of the problem, we’re just not dealing with someone who’s got a plan, I feel like he’s lost his way to be honest.”

She added: “He needs to offer something to those industries that are worth saving and help us get through this pandemic until we can work.”