Unlock free Digest editor
Roula Khalaf, editor of FT, chooses her favorite story in this weekly newsletter.
Richard Walker, executive president of the food seller Iceland, gave the Labor Party a Labor “Six of 10” for his effect in the Government, although he presented Sir Keir Starmer to start his election manifest last summer.
Walker said the employer’s rise was Contributes to national insurance “They have added to a great deal of business costs,” and it plans to build a third runway in Heathrow, and “Oxford-Cambridge ARC” in the medium term would have done a little economic growth.
He urged ministers to do more instead to address the British crisis of productivity. “A project that will not be completed for decades is not to help companies that need to invest today.”
Walker said he wanted the Government to do more to plan reforms and determine relations with Europe. In 2016, he voted for Brexit about the “Decision on the Band of the Knife” because he liked the idea of the “global free trade market” and saw the EU as a “protective racquet”.
“Looking back, you just think it’s naive to think it’s possible,” he admitted.
Now he welcomed Work The Government’s decision to have a “reset” relationship with Brussels. “We should sigh with the relief that this government is not as neuralgic as the EU’s Tori,” he said. “I welcome all the steps I can take to reduce friction at our borders.”
Walker said he wanted faster planning reforms to make it easier to open new stores, Iceland He has 30 stores in his pipeline for planning that is all “postponed”.
He also calls on the workforce to revive his idea of internet traffic tax to create a “fair balance” between digital and physical sellers – although the Internet stores of Iceland’s food products has a higher market share than its bricks and mortars.
“I’m not advocating for paying less taxes, I am just in favor of equal terms,” he said. “If Amazon’s warehouse burns, the fire department will throw it out. Their staff uses NHS. Their trucks go to roads. They have an agency in our society as others and yet they do not pay their share.”
Despite some reservations according to the Government Strategy so far, Walker said he did not regret supporting the work in the general elections.
“I stood together with Rachel Reeves at Labour’s Manifesto Launch last June, because I believed in Pro-Business, Pro-Rast-Rast,” he said.
“That belief did not change and I greet the recent transition to a much more optimistic tone, unlike the black hole dominated by the darkness that prevailed before and after the autumn budget. The rhetoric is so important.”
Walker, the son of Iceland’s founder Malcolm Walker – who he says is more than a “forage man” – raised his eyebrows when he converted to support in 2023, trying to unsuccessfully become a candidate for Tory.
“I got a few funny texts when I went out to turn my back to Tori. David Cameron just sent me one word in which word” Really? ”
As an executive President of Iceland, he sought to take “direct action”, for example, hiring almost 1,000 former perpetrators through “initiative for a second chance” and the introduction of micro-lovers for combat customers.
He said Iceland, a budget salesman with more than 950 stores, has first -hand experience in communities that hit the cost of a live crisis. “We see how high streets are falling apart, city councilors closed, canceled bus routes, I understand the kitchen economy more than most,” he said.
The national account for national insurance in Iceland will increase by tens of millions of pounds over the October budget.
Walker said that although the rise of NIC was an unwanted surprise, Iceland could endure additional costs by surviving worse shocks – like a sharp increase in global energy.
“Some companies reduce their job jobs, but this year we will hire 600 additional people, we are opening stores. . . We are a private job and we can think great in the long run, “he said.” If these taxes are spent wisely, and on appropriate inclusive growth for everyone, productivity growth, no job will amaze them in four years. “
While other executives complained about the ambitious employment reform of the Government, Walker is more Sanguine. “If they want to reduce the welfare account and bring more people to work, because we have 9 million economically inactive, then it is good to provide workers with greater support.. We do not hire any lawyer who would look at him.”
Walker spoke with the financial time at Piccolino Restaurant in Mayfair, part of the Iceland -owned restaurant chain.
The 44-year-old is a sharp surfer and a mountaineer who is Scalved Everest 2023 And she plans to travel to a “super technical, absolutely awesome” Laila Vrh in Pakistan.
He said he left his step in parliamentary policy: “No, I don’t want to be an MP now. I finished with that, I had a momentum and a miss.”
“I spent a year knocking on the door and leaving the envelopes[for the Tories]. . . After a year, they said, “You are too open on food banks and sewage, so you have to choose your media profile,” he said.
“I was the chairman of the sewer surfare and Rishi [Sunak] He gave me a bockocking for a campaign against Pooo in the oceans, I was told to go down. “
