- Stuart Machin blasts ‘catastrophic’ national insurance hike and ‘alphabet soup of taxes and regulations’
- Chancellor urged to ‘back farmers’ and ‘think again’ on inheritance tax raid
The boss of Marks & Spencer has urged Rachel Reeves to ‘change course’ to escape an ‘economic doom loop of ever higher taxes and lower growth’.
In a stinging rebuke ahead of next month’s Budget, Stuart Machin hit out at the Chancellor’s ‘catastrophic’ £25billion increase in national insurance and called for ‘no more’ tax hikes.
He bemoaned ‘an alphabet soup of taxes and regulations’ that has hit businesses and said Labour should be ‘backing our farmers’ – calling on the government to ‘think again’ on its inheritance tax raid.
‘The Chancellor has two paths ahead of her. More of the same: plugging fiscal holes with tax rises, stoking inflation and suppressing demand,’ Mr Machin wrote in an article on the M&S website.
‘Or change course: spend less, borrow less, tax less, regulate less, reduce inflation and enable growth.’
M&S boss Stuart Machin and Chancellor Rachel Reeves at the Pudsey store in Leeds
The comments came as Ms Reeves prepares to deliver her second Budget as Chancellor with the economy floundering, inflation rising and unemployment at a four-year high.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies last week suggested she will need to find as much as £50billion on November 26 – with fears mounting that the majority will come from tax hikes.
That sets the scene for Ms Reeves to deliver the two biggest tax-raising packages since comparable records began in 1970 having announced an extra £40billion of extra levies in the last Budget.
But Mr Machin urged her to change course – and cut public spending.
‘What they need now is a new plan to break out of our economic doom loop of ever higher taxes and lower growth,’ he said.
‘Ministers must prioritise and spend within their means, instead of coming back to businesses or the British public for more.
‘There are clear options for reductions in spending, even if they present political challenges.’
Ms Reeves has sought to shift the blame for the grim state of Britain in recent days – pointing the finger at Brexit, austerity and the Tories.
But Mr Machin said: ‘In politics or business, you can’t make excuses. Things go wrong. Events happen. What matters is getting back on track – not blaming other people or repeating mistakes.
‘We were told last year’s tax rises were a one-off, and I refuse to believe that geopolitics makes that pledge moot. The world economy was volatile then, it is volatile now, and it will be volatile for the foreseeable future.’
Mr Machin said the M&S tax bill has risen to ‘roughly £650million’ a year – which in turn pushes up prices as businesses pass higher costs on to customers.
‘Add all this to the impact on farmers in our supply chain from changes to inheritance tax and you’ve got a recipe for disaster, heaping pressure on the price of the weekly shop for families across the country,’ he said.
‘So what do I hope to see in the Budget? No more taxes that hit consumers and the everyday economy. I don’t know what planet Treasury bureaucrats are on when they propose increasing VAT, a regressive tax that would hit working families and stoke inflation.’
Mr Machin is just the latest business leaders to speak out ahead of the Budget.
Next boss Simon Wolfson last month warned Britain faces years of ‘anaemic growth’ as Labour strangles the economy with high taxes and red tape.
And Stuart Rose, a former boss of M&S, said Labour has pushed Britain to ‘the edge of a crisis’ and pleaded with the government to ‘change tack’.
