Good clothes: Actress Sienna Miller with M&S boss Stuart Machin
The boss of Marks & Spencer has slammed Labour’s ‘doom and gloom’ and warned there is no ‘coherent growth narrative’ ahead of the Budget.
Stuart Machin said he was ‘concerned’ about the impact of increases to employers’ National Insurance contributions alongside other tax hikes hitting retailers including business rates and fuel duty.
He said: ‘Raising these taxes isn’t the hard decision, it’s the easy way out. It might improve the public finances in the short term, but it makes economic recovery harder and hits our customers and colleagues still struggling with the cost of living.’
M&S is the latest major employer to sound the alarm as Labour’s ‘pro-growth’ agenda is called into question.
Echoing other High Street voices, Machin said ‘consumer confidence has nosedived after all the doom and gloom’.
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