Morrisons CEO urges gov to rethink budget costs

Morrisons’ CEO has called on the government to stagger its “avalanche” of business costs following the latest budget.Speaking to The Sun, Rami Baitieh urged Labour to consider the costs of National Insurance changes, business rates rises and the increase in minimum wage.

He told the paper that National Insurance changes will alone cost Morrisons around £75m.

Baitieh said: “The National Insurance change adds insult to injury. The problem is that it’s an avalanche of costs that is coming all at once. So I have asked them, can we not defer some of it or go step by step, like a doctor would do — raising the dose with seven pills over seven days.”

It comes as Tesco recently warned it would see an increase of £1bn in its national insurance bill over the next four years following Labour’s Autumn budget,

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has increased Employers’ National Insurance contributions in a bid to help raise as much as £40bn in taxes, pledging to also boost long-term growth and “mark an end to short term-ism” as part of Labour’s first budget since it came into power.

Employers’ National Insurance contributions will rise by 1.2%, from 13.8% to 15%. In addition, the threshold at which businesses start paying National Insurance on a worker’s earnings will be lowered from £9,100 to £5,000, a measure that will raise £25bn a year.