While the farmers took to the streets of Westminster, the shopkeepers protested in the old-fashioned way. They wrote a polite letter to the chancellor voicing their “significant concerns” over “the sheer scale” of budget measures that, they say, will push up their industry’s costs by £7bn next year and “make job losses inevitable and higher prices a certainty”. A total of 79 firms signed, including all the FTSE 100 crew – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Next, Marks & Spencer, B&Q owner Kingfisher, JD Sports and the AB Foods-owned Primark.
This display of unity will irritate the Treasury but, almost certainly, will not cause Rachel Reeves to rethink. The chancellor has already told firms how to deal with the rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs), the most contentious measure and one that comprises £2.33bn of the £7bn. They should absorb it through “lower profits or perhaps through lower wage growth”, she has said.
