Iceland boss Lord Richard Walker has urged Andy Burnham and John Healey to cut taxes for businesses and to shift focus from the cost of living. Walker, who supported Labour in the last election, stated that Healey should ease costs for employers.
Writing in The Sun on Sunday, Walker said that "warm words towards business won’t be enough" and that the government should "stop focusing on the cost of living and start focusing on the cost of getting Britain back to work." He added that their first priority should be to "make it cheaper to employ people, invest and grow."
Walker specifically mentioned that "every rise in employers’ National Insurance, every punishing business rates bill, and every other additional cost imposed by Whitehall changes the calculation about whether to create another job." He suggested that the October Budget should begin to shift the tax burden away from jobs and productive investment. This intervention follows previous criticisms from Walker regarding UK policymaking, including the "unsustainable" triple lock pension.