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How is trust between business owners and the Government ahead of the Budget?

Journalist: Jon King, Daily Express Online

ended 29. October 2024

The Chancellor is expected to increase employer contributions to national insurance by at least one percentage point tomorrow.

Keir Starmer has defined ‘working people’ as those who are ‘usually paid in a sort of monthly cheque’. 

The Daily Express is looking for strong views from business leaders about how much trust remains between the business community and the government in 3 to 4 sentences. 

 

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Debbie Porter
Managing Director at Destination Digital Marketing
Keir Starmer's biggest blunder in this whole, exhausting debate has been in making reference to 'working people', inferring who is and is not a working person. A truism such as 'taxing the rich to help the poor' would not have caused all this foreshadowing speculation about the Budget. As it is, he has alienated the biggest cohort driving the economy, the 5.5 million small business owners who put so much on the line, including not taking a pay cheque at all, or a minimal pay cheque to get their businesses up and running and into the black.
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Julie Anne Macken
Deputy Queen Bee at Neve's Bees
My biggest bugbear with this onslaught on small business owners is the narrative that we're somehow 'baddies'! I'm actually proud that I pay more into 'the system' than I take out - that I'm able not only to support my family, but give back in my taxes to help my community and the wider country - but I'm left feeling like a bad person that I've worked hard and created a successful business and these increased taxes are somehow my punishment for this. How about a changed narrative like: "we're so grateful for those who've succeeded in making enough money that they are able to support those of us who haven't had that opportunity. We'd like to thank them for their continued support in paying taxes". Also, please don't tell me that working 7 days a week somehow doesn't make me a 'working person'.
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Editor
Gabriel McKeown
Head of Macroeconomics at Sad Rabbit - Substack Newsletter
Following the new government’s deficit-plugging fanaticism, the forthcoming budget appears more like a game of fiscal whack-a-mole than a comprehensive economic plan, with the business community ending up in the crosshairs. This latest assault on the business foundations of the country, coupled with Starmer's myopic definition of ‘working people’, signals a dangerous shift in Labour's approach to taxation and threatens to shatter the already weakened confidence in the economy. The declaration earlier this month that Britain is ‘open for business’ feels laughable against this backdrop of continued uncertainty and a betrayal of the government's promise to support economic growth.