99.9% of businesses in our country are small businesses - they are our economy. We urgently need to create an environment in which these operations feel like the Government is on their side.
Because right now, the state is their enemy. Labour is their enemy. Reeves is their enemy. It is that brutal. I talk to so many business owners who are clinging on. The economy is teetering on the edge. It’s so much worse than the gnomes in Westminster realise. Tax is at its highest since the war. Successive governments have treated businesses as nothing more than a lemon to squeeze. To extract every last drop of revenue without caring whether the tree survives. The situation was dire even before Reeves got her grubby hands on the wheel. Tax upon tax upon tax. Relentless. Endless. With more to come. Corporation tax hiked. Business rates crushing the high street. Employer’s National Insurance punishing anyone who dares to take someone on. VAT traps that discourage growth. Layer upon layer of red tape that a small shop cannot possibly navigate without paying through the nose for accountants and compliance consultants. The system does NOT WORK. There is one solution, and one solution only. CUT TAX - right across the board. Corporation, income, dividend, business rates, national insurance and more. The five golden rules of business. What’s in it for me? You need to incentivise growth. Because for many in the current system, they just think what is the point? VAT registrations trap businesses under £90k. Dividend thresholds mean working to earn that extra money is just not worth the effort. Changes to inheritance tax mean that family business owners can’t even hand it over to their children. Slash back the power of these jumped-up little bureaucrats at HMRC and the councils. They sit around, doing sod all, making life difficult for the people actually contributing to the country. If you were going to design a system to stifle growth, this would be it. MPs haven’t got a clue. I sit there listening to them. I get more business sense out of my grandson. At least he understands incentives. Trust me - this lot DO NOT GET IT. A Labour minister told me, with a straight face, that he thinks the public sector is more efficient than the private sector. I got up and left the meeting. You’re better off negotiating with the pigeons than these people. But don’t worry, as small businesses across the country have been slaving away throughout August - the entirety of Westminster has gone on holiday. Brilliant. We return for a couple of weeks, then it’s off again for party conference season for a month. Parliament needs to understand what is happening out in the country. It is ugly. Very, very ugly. Small business owners cannot continue like this. The economy will snap, soon. MPs need to wake up. If we don’t change course, we are heading for economic catastrophe.