LEFT leaders backed Andy Burnham’s rates-relief package for pubs and music venues today.

The Prime Minister announced a 20 per cent cut in business rates on pubs, clubs and most live music venues, to be funded by raising tax on big tech companies and removing tax breaks from vape shops.

Leeds East MP Ruchard Burgon, secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group, called the move “a welcome first step.

“Pubs, clubs and music venues are at the heart of our communities and too many of them have been struggling here in Leeds. They deserve support as part of the fabric of our communities.”

And Green Party leader Zack Polanski said that “today’s business relief for venues and pubs is a welcome respite for an industry at the heart of our communities.”

“I won’t stand by while these cherished local spaces disappear, replaced by boarded-up windows and ‘For Sale’ signs,” he said in a post on X.

“They’re the heart of our communities and it’s time we backed them.”

In a post on X, Mr Burnham said that “today’s business relief for venues and pubs is a welcome respite for an industry at the heart of our communities.”

Some businesses “do real good” but other businesses “can cause social harm,” Mr Burnham told reporters later.

“So adult gaming centres on high streets can often bring real harm to communities. Then people will see the vape shops that often don’t add much to community life and cause other issues too.

“So it’s about developing a business rates regime where we really give incentives to support the businesses that bring benefits, and look differently at those that cause social harm.”

It is the third small-scale crowd-pleasing move from the new premier in as many days, following a VAT cut on electricity bills, and a cap on bus fares.

However, hotels and restaurants were upset at being left out of the rates cut, to be implemented from April, and it was not immediately clear which venues may qualify.

New Chancellor John Healey told business leaders today that the government was trying to “lift the pessimism that has eroded not just the public’s confidence, but our own prosperity.”

He pledged to support the bosses, saying: “I will back you as your chancellor and I’ll back you in financial services, in technology, in retail, in industry,” adding that he was as concerned “about the cost of business as I am about the cost of living.”

Mr Burnham said later that he would pause the proposed prisoner early release system that was due to begin in September.

In a statement, the new Prime Minister said: “Keeping the public safe will always be my top priority.

“I am working closely with the new Justice Secretary and have instructed my team to put a pause on the changes that were due to start in September.

“No prisoners will be let out under this policy until we have conducted an urgent review and done everything we can to minimise the risk to the public.

“Where changes are needed, we will not hesitate to make them.”