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By James Davey
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Labour government has done nothing to stimulate much-needed growth, the boss of supermarket group Asda said on Friday.
Asda’s veteran executive chairman Allan Leighton, who in a five decade career has also chaired Britain’s Co-operative Group and the Royal Mail, said finance minister Rachel Reeves’ tax raising budget on Wednesday had left consumers “confused and concerned”.
“The budget from my perspective – we’re still a country stuck in reverse,” he told reporters after Asda updated on trading.
“There’s nothing that’s happened in the last year that’s put growth back onto the agenda,” he said.
On Wednesday, Britain’s fiscal watchdog cut its forecasts for economic growth for the coming years - a setback for struggling Prime Minister Keir Starmer who promised voters last year he would speed up the economy.
The downgrade from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was linked to lower productivity growth which the OBR said reflected past underperformance due to headwinds including Brexit.
Leighton said Britain’s economy had two major issues – a lack of growth and poor productivity. “You do not get productivity without growth, it’s as simple as that.”
“Everybody just talks about growth but nobody’s really doing anything about it. And everybody talks about productivity and nobody’s doing anything about it,” he said.
Leighton said more cost burdens put on businesses and consumers would only serve to hamper growth.
“Business has to be incentivised to invest, because if you invest you grow, if you grow you drive productivity, it is so simple.”
Leighton did, however, welcome the government’s watering down of plans to strengthen workers’ protection against unfair dismissal, with employees now set to get the new rights six months after starting a job, not from their first day as originally planned.
“Things that make it easier for us to employ more people is really important, its helpful,” he said.
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Sarah Young)
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