Rachel Reeves’ autumn budget has done what Labour does best and punish business and stifle growth (Image: Getty)
’ autumn budget has done what Labour does best and punish business, stifle growth, and jeopardise the livelihoods of the hardworking British people.
What Reeves has delivered is not a “budget for the many,” but a fiscal horror show that will leave businesses reeling and employees out of work.
Take Shoe Zone, one of the latest high street casualties. This budget has forced the retailer to announce plans to close stores, citing “significant additional costs” stemming from Labour’s hikes in employer contributions and the national living wage.
Shoe Zone, which operates nearly 300 stores nationwide and employs around 2,250 staff, says these measures have rendered certain outlets “unviable”.
But let’s be clear about this, this is not just Shoe Zone’s problem. It is symptomatic of a that understands nothing about business or economics.
Reeves and Starmer are more interested in grandstanding with virtue-signalling green policies at international summits than addressing the long-term consequences of their actions here in Great Britain.
Hiking the national living wage sounds good in a press release, but it doesn’t take an economist to realise that businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), cannot absorb these costs without consequence.
Small businesses form the backbone of the UK economy, employing millions of people and providing vital services to communities. Yet, Reeves’ budget has all but declared war on them.
Burdened with higher wage bills and increased national insurance costs, many SMEs are now facing stark choices of raising their prices for consumers, cut jobs, or close entirely. For a party that claims to champion the working class, Labour is doing a stellar job of putting people out of work.
Every store closure represents jobs lost, families left struggling, and communities stripped of essential services. And let’s not forget the ripple effect: when businesses close, supply chains are disrupted, tax revenue dwindles, and local economies suffer.
Reeves’ budget is not just bad for business; it is economically illiterate. Her policies are already spooking the markets, with inflation rising for the second consecutive month to 2.6% — it’s highest level in eight months. This is no coincidence.
Businesses are pricing in the additional costs imposed by Labour, and consumers are bearing the brunt. The cost-of-living crisis, which Labour claims to want to fix, is being exacerbated by their own policies.
And what happens when businesses can no longer cope? People become economically inactive, reliant on state benefits to survive.
Labour’s budget, far from empowering workers, is creating a cycle of dependency while eroding the tax base needed to fund public services.
The fundamental problem is this: Labour has no understanding of how wealth is created. They see businesses as cash cows to be milked, rather than engines of growth and opportunity. Reeves’ budget is a masterclass in how not to run an economy.
Instead of incentivising investment and entrepreneurship, it penalises success and rewards failure.
Labour’s lack of business experience shows in every line of their fiscal plan. They fail to grasp that businesses, especially small ones, operate on razor-thin margins.
When costs rise, as they inevitably will under this budget, something has to give. That something is jobs, growth, and economic stability.
If Labour’s autumn budget is a taste of things to come, Britain is in for a rough ride.
The systematic destruction of small businesses, rising unemployment, and escalating inflation are just the beginning. Reeves has saddled the UK with policies that will haunt us for years to come.
Labour talks a big game about building a fairer economy, but their actions tell a different story.
They are driving businesses into the ground and leaving workers to pick up the pieces. This budget is not a vision for the future; it is a blueprint for economic disaster.
The question now is not whether Labour will change course—they won’t—but how much damage they will inflict before the British public holds them to account.
Richard Thomson was the Reform UK candidate for Braintree in the 2024 General Election and served as a Royal Marine for eight years