‘Six out of 10’: Iceland boss and Labour backer grades UK government
The chair of the food retailer Iceland, Richard Walker, has given the Labour government only “six out of 10” for its record so far, after switching support to the party a year ago,He told the Financial Times that Labour needed to do more to help firms investing now, rather than investing in projects that may take decades to be completed,He criticised an increase to national insurance contributions (NICs) from April that he said had “added greatly to the cost of business”, and said the expansion of Heathrow and more building projects between Cambridge and Oxford would not benefit many firms in the medium term,“That third runway at Heathrow won’t be delivered in my lifetime,” he said,Walker, son of Iceland’s founder, Malcolm Walker, quit the Conservative party and abandoned his ambitions to become an MP in October 2023 in protest at its “inability to deliver” and to support business under Rishi Sunak.
In January 2024, he switched his support to Keir Starmer before the July general election, saying Labour was the “right choice for everyone in business who wants to see this country grow and prosper”.He has not donated to the party, and is not a member.The Labour government has endured a difficult start to its time in office.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, faced a business backlash after announcing that employers would bear the brunt of tax rises through the increase to NICs.Labour had ruled out rises in income tax during the election campaign.
Walker said he wanted the government to reform the planning system to make building faster – including for Iceland’s planned new supermarkets – to show that Labour would be better for economic growth,An overhaul of business rates, the taxes paid on properties, would also “enable us to get on with doing our jobs” of growing revenues and therefore creating new employment, he said,“It’s just about inclusive growth and everyday growth,” he told the Guardian,He said the US Democratic party had learned the hard way that “it’s got to trickle down in everyday people’s lives”,He also made the case for a positive message from the government, saying: “Confidence drives investment, investment drives jobs, and jobs drive growth.
”Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionCloser trading relations with the EU, as signalled by Starmer in recent weeks, would also be positive, Walker said.He was one of the few prominent business leaders who backed the leave campaign during the Brexit referendum in 2016, but he said his idea of the UK as part of a “global free trade market” was “maybe naive”.He told the FT: “I welcome any steps they can take to reduce friction at our borders.”On his aborted attempt to become a Tory parliamentary candidate, Walker said: “I got some funny texts when it came out that I was turning my back on the Tories … David Cameron just sent me one word saying: ‘Really?’”
Three water companies appeal against Ofwat’s ‘unacceptable’ curb on bill rises
Three water companies have asked the UK’s competition watchdog to allow them to raise bills even higher than they have been allowed over the next five years, as one chief executive said the industry regulator’s recent ruling was “unacceptable”.Southern Water, Anglian Water and South East Water said on Tuesday that they had asked Ofwat, the water regulator for England and Wales, to refer its ruling on their business plans for 2025 to 2030 to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).Southern – which also announced plans to raise £900m of new equity – had already been allowed a 53% increase to average bills for its 4.7 million customers over the next five years in a December ruling by Ofwat.The Southern Water chief executive, Lawrence Gosden, said that settlement “would not enable us to deliver the environmental and performance improvements and new infrastructure that our customers and communities rightly expect”
UK pay growth rises 6% despite job loss warnings after Reeves’s budget
UK workers’ pay grew sharply in the final quarter of last year and unemployment remained unchanged despite warnings from business that Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget would lead to job losses.Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show annual growth in total average weekly earnings rose by 6% in the three months to the end of December, up from 5.6% for the November period and above a 5.9% forecast made by City economists.Regular pay, excluding bonuses, accelerated from 5
Lessons for Elon Musk from the original Doge | Brief letters
As Elon Musk’s unelected “Doge” troops slash and burn US federal departments (Elon Musk appears with Trump and tries to claim ‘Doge’ team is transparent, 12 February), it is ironic to note that the Doges of ancient Venice were always elected, and by a process that was designed to avoid wealthy families taking too much power.John JacobsAlton, Hampshire I agree with your correspondents about the difficulty of hearing the lyrics in musicals (Letters, 13 February), but there’s little mention of the problem in cinemas, where conversations are drowned out by background music. In the recent film about Bob Dylan, Timothée Chalamet perfectly captured the musician’s mumble. What words he actually said remain A Complete Unknown.Joanna RimmerNewcastle upon Tyne Re the letters on analogue photography (14 February), there is a good compromise
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The Ultra is Samsung’s largest and greatest phone and is packed to the gills with the very latest technology, which means more artificial intelligence than ever before.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The Galaxy S25 Ultra is at the front of the line of a new wave of Android phones that promise to basically do everything for you
New franchise owners in the Hundred pushing for IPL-style auction next year
The Hundred could introduce an Indian Premier League-style open auction next year with the new investors who have bought stakes in the eight franchises pushing for unlimited budgets to attract the best players in the world.Under the existing regulations the Hundred player draft operates on the basis of franchises taking turns to pick players at a number of set salary levels controlled by the England and Wales Cricket Board, rather than entering an open bidding war. While the Hundred salary pot has increased by 25% this season, with the highest men’s contract worth £200,000 and the best-paid women earning £65,000, there is a strong feeling among the new owners that it is insufficient.Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer will both be paid more as individuals by their IPL teams this year than the entire playing budget of a men’s Hundred franchise. With a maximum budget of £1
The Breakdown | ‘Clubs are going to disappear’: grassroots rugby crying for help in Six Nations’ shadow
The community game’s feedback for the Bills, Sweeney and Beaumont, makes for painful reading as RFU hits the road in week of Calcutta CupYou may have noticed that the sports pages are less, well, sporty than they once were. There is rather more chance of reading stern-faced stories about Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazers or Manchester City’s latest legal dispute than, say, the muddy winter joys of grassroots rugby union. It is the way of the modern world and, anyway, England playing Scotland in the Six Nations this Saturday is a bigger deal, right?Well, yes and no. If you are counting the beans inside the Rugby Football Union’s offices in Twickenham there is barely a contest. The Six Nations annually bankrolls the rest of the domestic game: it is the commercial goose that lays the golden Gilbert‑shaped eggs
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