BrewDog chairman Allan Leighton has warned that Labour’s economic policies are damaging growth by piling additional costs on businesses and consumers.
Leighton, who is also executive chairman of Asda, said higher taxes had weakened consumer confidence and discouraged companies from investing, warning that Britain was approaching a “tipping point” ahead of the next Budget.
He told The Telegraph: “The economic model that we’ve been pursuing, or the Government is pursuing, has inhibited growth because it’s put heavy taxation and heavy costs on consumers.
“When that happens, consumers spend less, their confidence goes down, and businesses invest less. You don’t have to go to Harvard to work that out.”
Leighton said the Budget would be critical in determining the direction of the economy, adding: “We can either inhibit growth, which has been the strategy so far, not inhibit growth, which in itself would be something, or thirdly, do something that really helps growth. That’s why I think we’re at a tipping point.”
He stopped short of calling for existing tax rises to be reversed but warned that “anything that puts a cost on business that the business then has to recover in some way, shape, or form is a problem”.
Leighton described Chancellor John Healey as “very sensible” and “very objective”, while saying he would reserve judgment on Prime Minister Andy Burnham until the Government had set out its economic agenda.