Andy Burnham must cut taxes on business to get Brits to work and boost growth, former Cost of Living Czar warns

THE GOVERNMENT’S former Cost of Living Czar today tells Andy Burnham to cut business taxes in the Budget to create jobs and growth. In an explosive intervention, Richard Walker said No10 should “stop focusing on the cost of living and start focusing on the cost of getting Britain back to work”. Richard Walker, the former Cost of Living Czar, says the government must focus on cutting taxes and getting Brits into work to get the economy going gangbusters again Credit: Getty Lord Walker is a Labour peer who served as Sir Keir Starmer’s Cost of Living adviser and is chairman of the Iceland supermarket. But in a bombshell article, he says the time for bailouts is over and the government must cut the costs on businesses to turn the economy around. Sign up for the Politics newsletter Thank you! This will cut the benefits bill, tackle the youth unemployment crisis and make struggling Brits better off, he said. Lord Walker warned “warm words towards business won’t be enough” and the PM and Chancellor John Healey must cut business taxes in the Budget in October. Writing in today’s Sun on Sunday, he said: “Their first priority should be simple: make it cheaper to employ people, invest and grow. “Every rise in employers’ National Insurance, every punishing business rates bill, and every other additional cost imposed by Whitehall changes the calculation about whether to create another job. “The October Budget should begin shifting the tax burden away from jobs and productive investment. “Cut the cost of employing people and go further on business rates. Most read in The Sun “Give companies the confidence that if they invest in Britain today, the government will not simply come back and tax investment tomorrow.” Prime Minister Andy Burnham is weighing up what to put in his first Budget as PM amid growing fears he will increase taxes to bankroll his spending spree Credit: PA Prime Minister Andy Burnham stacks loaves of bread onto a shelf with the help of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (second left) and Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden (left) Credit: PA The Labour peer and supermarket boss spent six months advising Sir Keir on how to help Brits clobbered by crippling price rises. He said he knows “how painful the cost of living crisis has been”, but added: “We need to face our uncomfortable truth head on. “We cannot fix the cost of living as bailout Britain – in which every problem is answered with another subsidy, benefit or demand on business to pick up the bill.” Lord Walker also called for “brave decisions on welfare” to get Brits back into work and ease the bloated benefits bill. Lord Walker was made a Labour member of the House of Lords by Sir Keir. He quit his role the day before Mr Burnham became PM, having given his report and recommendations to Sir Keir. Mr Burnham is preparing to unveil his first Budget as PM on October 28, and is expected to raise taxes. But a growing number of business chiefs and economists have warned that hiking levies further will backfire and harm UK plc. This includes Jim O’Neill, a former banker and Burnham ally who has warned it would be “stupid ” to raise wealth taxes in the Budget. Britain’s tax burden is already at its highest level since the Second World War, and the employer NICs hike has been blamed for job losses and poor growth. Mr Burnham has vowed to be a “pro business PM” and said he wants to ease the burden of doing business in the UK. His looming economic blueprint is being seen as a key test of that promise. Comment now