Marks & Spencer boss accuses Labour of ‘biggest tax grab in history’

Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Machin has accused the government of mounting “one of the biggest tax grabs in history” in a scathing attack on Labour’s efforts to boost economic growth. The retail boss told reporters that the three Budgets since Labour came to power have resulted in about £73bn in extra taxes, claiming the government has failed to deliver on its pledge to boost economic growth. He said: “When you look at the last three Budgets, you can’t just ignore the fact that this is probably one of the biggest tax grabs in history that I’ve seen.”

Machin described last week’s Budget as “a whole lot of nothing”. He said M&S were “disappointed” by Healey’s first major act as Chancellor “because it didn’t really address the issues that we needed to focus on growth”. Though the Budget was billed as a “do no harm” event, Machin said that the Chancellor’s announcement on business rates will add another £10m pounds on top of the £170m its firm already pays annually. Retailers criticised Healey for claiming to freeze the business rates bills of all high street firms despite the fact that these taxes will still rise with inflation.

The 3.5 per cent hike will add £250m in costs for retailers next year. Machin said: “We know all of the headwinds that we’ve seen from [the] government. […] The extra costs from the Budget in ‘24 added another £150m to our cost base, and actually, when you look at things coming down the road, I can’t see that getting any better. “Just in April, this new packaging tax, which we were told was meant to help cancel councils and reinvest in recycling, but the previous Chancellor admitted it was just a tax for the Treasury.

Just in one month, we paid £40m out of our food margin.” Stockpiling order ‘worried’ shoppers The M&S boss also accused the government of worsening Brits’ consumer confidence, which suffered its steepest decline in a decade in September, according to GfK. He criticised the government’s recently-published advice for shoppers to stockpile three days’ worth of supplies, which grocers said had caught them by surprise. Machin said: “Everything is pointing to people saying ‘we’re worried about cost of living, we’re worried about the headwinds’, and of course they are being told to worry as well.

“The stockpiling announcement a couple of weeks ago, when you get told by the government to stockpile, everyone sits there and says: ‘well, you’re telling me to worry about something.” Ahead of the Budget, Machin urged the Chancellor to adopt six policies to “get Britain growing by taking the handcuffs off business and putting money back in people’s pockets”. These included cutting packaging taxes and rolling back hikes to employment costs.

Machin said the Treasury ignored five of these points, though he praised the government’s progress towards a deal to remove post-Brexit checks on food and agriculture exports. The existing checks make it “very problematic” for M&S to transfer stock to its stores in the Republic of Ireland, he said. Machin claimed a deal to re-align food standards with the European Union would be a “big win”. On Wednesday, Marks & Spencer posted a £355m pre-tax profit as double-digit growth in its food arm helped the retailer continue its recovery from last year’s cyber attack.

But the group warned that its fashion, home and beauty business is still in the “foothills” of its comeback.