The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has inadvertently found itself on the frontline of the blue-on-blue Tory leadership war. After the FSB published opinion polling in the Times last night, showing 76% of the public think small businesses are important to levelling up, Team Rishi waded in to tweet the data with a ‘fact check’ attack on Liz:
🚨Liz Truss's plans will help only the largest businesses. 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐭: only the largest 30% of all companies will benefit from her corporation tax plans
— Ready 4 Rishi (@Ready4Rishi) August 10, 2022
Rishi is the only candidate with the plan to support small businesses as he did as Chancellor#Ready4Rishi https://t.co/HG7rhV7Z6t
The only problem is the FSB is having none of it, with External Affairs Chief Craig Beaumont immediately shooting back with a fact check of his own. Even attacking Rishi personally for having “no ‘plan for small businesses”…
🚨𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐭-check:
— Craig Beaumont 🇺🇦 (@craigie_b) August 10, 2022
* Liz will reverse Rishi’s jobs tax (Employer NICs hike, saving 50,000 jobs), cut business rates, help the self-employed
* Rishi will hit job creation, but exempts some small biz from his own corp tax rise
That’s no ‘plan for small businesses’ @RishiSunak 1/2 https://t.co/QIy60Vw46M
Awkward. Beaumont added that while the FSB doesn’t “endorse any candidate or party“, only one campaign in this race is currently offering “actual pro-small business policies”. You don’t have to be Sherlock to work this one out…
UPDATE: Beaumont tells Guido: “We need a pro-small-business Prime Minister and he’s just not it, right now.” Ouch.
A coruscating takedown of the Budget from the Federation of Small Businesses:
“The National Insurance rise to 10% next year and 11% in 2019 should be seen for what it is – a £1 billion tax hike on those who set themselves up in business. This undermines the Government’s own mission for the UK to be the best place to start and grow a business, and it drives up the cost of doing business. Future growth of the UK’s 4.8 million-strong self-employed population is now at risk. Increasing this tax burden, effectively funded by a reduction in corporation tax over the same period, is the wrong way to go…
The genuinely self-employed are fundamentally different to employees – they are the risk takers that spearhead growth and productivity in our economy. They need help and support from Government given the spiralling costs of doing business, not additional tax burdens. This measure is a tax grab on middle income self-employed people, who are just about managing. Class 4 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) will apply from about £8,000 to £45,000 in profits. Millions of self-employed will now face this tax hike, including plumbers, hairdressers, designers, musicians and many others in all our local communities…
FSB is concerned about the drop in tax-free dividend allowance from £5000 to £2000 starting in April 2018. In the wake of changes to dividend taxation last year, this is a further disincentive for businesses to invest and grow. Many of our members, including those on modest incomes, will now see a significant rise in their tax liabilities.”
The Tories hitting entrepreneurs, their own voters…
