Labour’s economic policies are damaging growth by piling costs on businesses and households, bringing the economy to a “tipping point”, the boss of Asda has warned. The Telegraph has the story.
Allan Leighton said the decision to put up taxes had depressed consumer confidence and discouraged companies from investing. He said Britain was approaching a “tipping point” before the Budget.
Leighton said: “The economic model that we’ve been pursuing, or the Government is pursuing, has inhibited growth because it’s put heavy taxation and heavy costs on consumers.
“When that happens, consumers spend less, their confidence goes down, and businesses invest less. You don’t have to go to Harvard to work that out.”
He said the next Budget would determine whether the Government could avoid further damage to the economy.
“We can either inhibit growth, which has been the strategy so far, not inhibit growth, which in itself would be something, or thirdly, do something that really helps growth. That’s why I think we’re at a tipping point.”
He stopped short of urging Labour to reverse the tax rises it has imposed so far, but warned that “anything that puts a cost on business that the business then has to recover in some way, shape, or form is a problem”.
Leighton described John Healey, the new Chancellor, as “very sensible” and “very objective”, adding that he would reserve judgement on Andy Burnham until the Prime Minister had set out his economic agenda.
Burnham has made tackling cost of living challenges a key priority, but Leighton warned that rising food prices were inevitable after the summer heatwaves. Fresh produce is likely to be hardest hit, he said, after the hot weather and lack of rain damaged crops.
Worth reading in full.
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Bit late becoming perceptive
Apologies to the conspiracy theorists. More apologies to come. Many, many more.
You’re not kidding. They’re coming from all corners now – hold me up. Still, mustn’t crow, just let them think they always knew really.
I’m in France for a few days more. They are also up the creek. Huge debts and interest payments. Banks have stopped cheap mortgages and rates have tripled. Businesses collapsing all over the place. The public sector pensions are enormous and they won’t reduce them. The private economy is stuffed and can’t be taxed when that’s nothing left. Welfare for the unemployable can’t be cut because of inner city riots.
Ditto UK.
A genius. Never would have known.
” can’t drive a bus for love no money man, but hey hey, my skin the right colour “wicked!
You can’t beat dei hires my man,” i got a Nigerian bus licence! I’m free to transport you! Yo yo
Labour is harming the economy, just like they have been ordered to.
It’s the Fabian method with Burnham applying the Northern approach to fool the nation.
Isn’t that what they always do?
Yes it is, but this time they have taken over from another socialist government who have spent their 14 years killing growth in the economy so there is no pile of cash for Labour to piss away.
If I want to depress myself, I just take the national debt of £3 trillion (or total liabilities of 11.7 trillion, according to Taxpayers Alliance) and divide it by the number of people or taxpayers in the country.
To depress myself further, I remind myself that it’s likely to be called in when I’m dead, all my assets have gone in death duties to finance more nonsense, and it will be my children or grandchildren, reduced to the menial tasks left to them by AI, who will be asked to stump up the cash.
If Healey continues or worsens Labour’s policies we will know that this judgement of him is erroneous. He will show he is not “very sensible” and “very objective” but totally committed to Magic Grandad economics.
How a person who really is “very sensible” and “very objective” can remain in the Cabinet or even a party which has and does support Net Zero, boys-can-be-girls and unlimited immigration, I do not understand; I think it is not possible.
And as most will know, ASDA is part of Walmart. Where I live, both of them are in the same building, trading side by side.
MODERATOR HERE
Walmart only owns 10% of ASDA, so they have no effective control over it
ASDA is owned by Indians who also own petrol stations, the ones with the ASDA stores.
They will just announce some pathetic tax cuts, like 0.5% off gas prices and adding 0.5% to petrol, increase general taxation by another 1% or so continuing the downward economic spiral, and pretend that everything is going great whilst unemployment continues to surge and spending goes ballistic.
This is what the commies do, except our spending is now beyond that of the Soviet Union, so we are in uncharted territory as to how it all comes to a head.
I fear it will be much much worse than that.
Recent sets of politicians have talked a lot but only played around the edges.
After you have frittered away the country’s economic health it will now need big doses of medicine to restore it. I don’t believe the Uniparty is prepared to do that until the economy collapses*.
*First slowly, and then all at once.
The big one is public spending and welfare in particular of course, but if we cut welfare, where are the jobs for them to take on.? They are with Boris wave-er’s, so repatriate the Boris-wavers and the non-contributing foreign nationals. Except that Uniparty is woven together with the opposite of these policies. Like asking a bird not to fly or a fish not to swim. Its going to take a lot of blood and tears to put this right.
If they are not British nationals we don’t have a responsibility to keep them in the manner they and their left wing lawyers think should be normal. There is not enough cash in the country to do that.
That solves most of the problem. The rest can be solved by face to face interviews with claimants who claim they cannot, for examples: stack shelves, deliver post or parcels, sweep streets, tidy up on the few remaining building sites, wipe arses, collect litter, mow lawns, was cars etc.
Or their new favoured term “at pace” – uggghhhh.
At pace appeared in DWP about twelve years ago and I challenged it because everything was supposed to be done “at pace.” Nothing changed. Staff still worked on the “well at least I came in today” principle.
“At pace” is civil service BS and means FA.
At a snail’s pace – there, fixed it.
I still remember Reeves basically telling us in the run-up to the last General Election that this time Labour could be trusted with the economy, and that she would pursue policies that created growth. How right I was not to believe a single word that she said, and to expect her policies to have the exact opposite effect.
She couldn’t even tell the truth about her past, as I remember (but as the powers conveniently forgot).
“You don’t have to go to Harvard to work that out.”
Sadly, if you’ve been on the Oxbridge politics courses, you never will.
If you went to Cambridge it wouldn’t matter, as long as you filled the quota of DEI hires.
Harvard is becoming just as degraded as an educational institution.
Geddaway. Just like the “Conservatives”.
And just like Labour has been doing since 1945.