- John Roberts cites soaring business costs and growing tax burden on wealthy
The boss of electricals retailer AO World has warned that rising inflation and Labour’s workers’ rights bill threaten to tip Britain into recession.
John Roberts became the latest business chief to express frustration over the Government’s handling of the economy – and fear that soaring taxes are driving wealth creators out of the UK.
‘We’ve lived through a few recessions in the last 25 years – I think we’re heading into another one,’ Roberts told the BBC.
‘We have inflation coming through and we are now feeling that in the costs across businesses.
‘Business leaders that I speak to are looking at how they can take people out.
‘Costs walk into businesses on legs – those legs have got much more expensive. It is much more difficult to recruit people, it’s much less flexible than it has ever been to recruit people.’
John Roberts became the latest business chief to express frustration over the Government’s handling of the economy
And Roberts, whose business trades as AO.com, accused Labour of driving wealth out of the country by squeezing more and more tax out of them only to waste the money.
‘What I really object to is the narrative that you can just keep taxing wealthy people and wasting the money. We are driving incredible amounts of wealth out of this nation.
‘I know many people that have left the UK. You just can’t keep gearing the tax up. What you’ve got to do is run the country efficiently, you’ve got to take the tough decisions.’
His comments came as businesses increasingly object that they cannot take any more tax hikes – as fears grow of a fresh raid by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in November’s Budget.
And dismal economic figures show the damaging impact that her previous tax hikes – notably the increase in employer national insurance – are having.
Closely-watched survey figures on Tuesday showed private sector jobs have been cut for 12 months in a row – even as the bloated private sector continues to swell.
Meanwhile the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warned this week that Britain is this year set to face the highest inflation among all the G7 group of advanced economies.
Roberts slams workers’ rights bill
At the same time, business leaders fear further damage from Labour’s workers’ rights bill.
Roberts rejected the argument for so-called ‘day one’ rights that are soon to be made law – which give workers the same employment protection as longer-serving colleagues from the moment they start a job.
‘We should be talking about job creation, not enforcing things that make business leaders think twice about recruiting people and about giving somebody a chance,’ he said.
‘If the risks associated with giving those people a chance start going up exponentially then you think twice about it.
‘We can’t carry costs that some of our competitors are not carrying. We should be turbo-charged by our UK government, not disadvantaged.’
And Roberts took aim at Labour’s failure to address Britain’s welfare bill which ‘everybody knows’ needs to be addressed.
‘It has ballooned out of all control… but when it actually comes down to the MPs with a massive majority doing the right thing for the nation, they back out of it.
‘Why do they back out of it. Because ‘I might not get elected again’.’
He accused Labour of ‘flip-flopping around and blowing in the wind’.
The comments come after Next boss Lord Wolfson last week said Britain faced years of ‘anaemic growth’ and warned more tax increases would have a ‘demonstrable negative impact’.
Earlier this month, former Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Rose said Labour had pushed the economy to the ‘edge of a crisis’.
And Asda chief Allan Leighton last month urged the Chancellor to stop ‘taxing everything’.
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This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .