The 7th December was the first “Small Business Saturday” to take place in the UK. It coincided with one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
To mark the occasion, I joined Leicester South MP, Jon Ashworth, as we shadowed a market trader and helped sell fruit and veg. Our city has the largest and finest market of its type in Europe, with a history that stretches back over seven hundred years.
Market traders are getting the backing they need from Labour locally with a £7m Investment Plan for Leicester Market.
But we need national action if we’re really going to help our fantastic local businesses thrive. This means cutting business rates, freezing energy bills, creating regional business banks to boost lending and developing gold standard vocational qualifications including apprenticeships.
You can read a piece I wrote for the Mercury about Small Business Saturday here and read coverage of our market visit here.
