Lord Walker calls for Healey to cut business taxes

Iceland boss Lord Richard Walker has called upon Labour's Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey to reduce business taxes and shift focus from the cost of living to helping Britain's workforce. Walker, who previously supported the Labour Party, addressed the issue as the cost of living tsar under Sir Keir Starmer's administration.

He urged the government to prioritize making it cheaper for businesses to employ people and invest in growth. In an opinion piece for The Sun on Sunday, Walker wrote that "warm words towards business won't be enough" and stressed that every increase in employers' National Insurance, business rates, and other costs imposed by the government alters the decision to create jobs.

Walker advocated for the October Budget to begin reducing the tax burden on jobs and productive investment. His comments add to a series of criticisms of UK policymaking, including opposition to the "unsustainable" triple lock pension, which annually adjusts the state pension based on whichever factor—inflation, wage growth (up to 2.5%), or both—results in the highest increase.

Walker echoed the Confederation of British Industry's calls for Burnham to lower national insurance taxes for employers, a demand that was reiterated by other business leaders like John Caudwell and Lord Stuart Rose. These entrepreneurs have expressed growing concern over the "creep" of small tax hikes on businesses and households, arguing that taxes and regulation have become significant obstacles to economic growth and employment.