Government 'doesn't understand business', former ASDA boss warns

by · Mail Online

The Labour Government ‘doesn’t understand business’, the former head of Asda has warned as the backlash against the Chancellor’s Budget tax bombshell continued to intensify.

Stuart Rose, who led the supermarket chain from 2021 until stepping down earlier this month, also warned that the standoff between ministers and farmers over changes to inheritance tax could disrupt food supplies.

He predicted that the Chancellor’s plans to increase National Insurance contributions from employers as well as a rise in the minimum wage would push up prices for shoppers.

‘In foods, we’ve got inflation down to very manageable levels,’ he said. ‘And they’ve just hit us with another tax... all retailers have said publicly that they’re going to have to probably put prices up now. That’s going to fuel inflation.’

Lord Rose added: ‘I don’t think government understands business. And that doesn’t just apply to this Government.’

He also warned about the continuing standoff between the Government and farmers over inheritance tax on farmland.

‘We make pork pies today, and they’re in the shops tomorrow. We lay eggs today. They’re in the shops tomorrow. We pick a lettuce today. It’s in the shop tomorrow.

‘People stop picking lettuce, and chickens stop laying eggs, and people don’t make pork pies, well, you’ve got a problem,’ Lord Rose told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on LBC radio.

Former ASDA boss Stuart Rose has said the Labour Government 'doesn't understand business'
Lord Rose also warned of food supply disruptions due to a standoff between farmers and Sir Keir Starmer's government

He seemed downbeat about the prospects for the retail sector, which has been among those hardest hit by the Chancellor’s tax raid.

‘[Retail] is not an industry that, if you were to start from scratch, you’d probably go into,’ he said.

Lord Rose’s comments came as analysis by Bloomberg Economics suggested that Labour’s jobs tax could cost 130,000 jobs.

Lord Rose, who was also executive chairman at Marks & Spencer until 2010, was among 81 retail bosses who signed a letter to the Chancellor last week warning that tax rises on the industry would result in job losses, shop closures and higher prices.