Labour has been warned its “relentless” tax rises must stop, as the bosses of Gail’s Bakery and Boden sound the alarm about policies driving entrepreneurs out of Britain.
More than 65 business leaders and MPs have signed a letter to The Telegraph, arguing that changes to National Insurance, capital gains tax and business reliefs amount to a “death by a thousand cuts” for founders.
They warned that Britain risked becoming an “incubator economy” that creates successful businesses only to lose them to countries with lower taxes and less red tape, effectively “training entrepreneurs for export”.
The intervention, organised by founders’ network Helm, comes as pressure mounts on Labour to address the growing burden facing hospitality and consumer businesses.
It follows a UKHospitality campaign, led by Tom Kerridge, that has attracted more than 200,000 signatures on a petition calling for VAT on pubs, bars and restaurants to be cut to 10pc.
The Telegraph’s Save Our Pubs campaign has also highlighted mounting cost pressures on the sector as landlords grapple with rising taxes, wage bills and energy costs.
Signatories of Helm’s letter include Luke Johnson, the chairman of Gail’s Bakery, Johnnie Boden, founder of Boden, and Marcel Khan, the chief executive of Franco Manca and The Real Greek.
They are joined by 19 MPs, including shadow cabinet ministers Priti Patel, Chris Philp and Andrew Griffith.
Mr Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said on Wednesday that companies were being squeezed by recent policies which threatened jobs and growth.
Speaking at the launch of UKHospitality’s campaign, he accused Labour of harming the employment prospects of young people through changes to employers’ National Insurance and above-inflation increases in the minimum wage.
He told audience members that “no government that cared about the job prospects of a generation of young people” would have lowered the threshold for National Insurance in a way that brought more workers into scope.
Mr Griffith also warned that higher minimum wage rates for younger workers were “pricing people out of jobs” at a time when youth unemployment had passed 16pc.
In their letter, business leaders said founders spent years taking risks, sacrificing salaries and creating jobs, only to face an increasingly punitive tax regime when they succeed.
The signatories argued that, while Britain was “tightening the screws” on wealth creators, other countries were actively competing to attract them.
The US offers zero tax on the first $10m (£7.5m) of a qualifying company sale, while countries including Cyprus, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore have introduced lower-tax regimes and business-friendly policies aimed at entrepreneurs.
