Britain’s largest retailers have cut nearly 18,000 jobs over the past year according to Bloomberg. You’ll never guess what they blame…
Higher taxes and wages under Labour have squeezed supermarkets – Tesco’s headcount is down by almost 5,000 in the last financial year. Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, and Kingfisher (B&Q) each saw average employee counts fall by around 3,000…
The industry is blaming 2024’s rise in employer national insurance contributions and the higher minimum wage (raised again in April). M&S chairman Archie Norman said the regulatory environment has rarely been less friendly to growth with a substantially increased tax burden plus stricter packaging, recycling, and food safety rules. Over one million 16-24-year-olds are not in employment, education, or training…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”