In My View by Eric Musgrave: Who is campaigning for UK retailers and manufacturers?
It is an odd, not to say worrying, thought that on 18 June around just 76,000 people in the constituency of Makerfield could define the direction and well-being of the entire United Kingdom for years or decades to come.
Of course, the number of registered voters who turn out in that area of Wigan for the all-important by-election could be significantly lower. Only 52.5% of those eligible to cast a vote did so on 4 July 2024, so maybe fewer than 40,000 will hold the key to a victory for Labour’s Andy Burnham or a significant win for Robert Kenyon of Reform.
I am not discounting the other 12 hopefuls in this strange parliamentary contest, but at the time of writing 7 days before the vote the bookies – who usually have a better grasp of realities than many self-important political pundits – have Burham as 1/6 favourite, well ahead of Kenyon on 5/1 and Rebecca Shepherd of Restore Britain at 10/1.
One major betting firm states: The Conservatives, Greens and Liberal Democrats are rank outsiders. Ouch.
As I have no desire to see the divisive and nasty politics pedalled by Reform and Restore given any more momentum, I am hoping for a Burnham win, but I am not taking that for granted. Large parts of the British public seem to want ridiculously simple answers to very complex questions and Reform and Restore are ready to spout what they want to hear.
Whatever is being discussed on the doorsteps of Makerfield, I am guessing the state of the high street and the survival of British clothing, textile and footwear manufacturing is not high on the list.
I fear whatever happens on 18 June and beyond, we will see very little change regarding the void of political thinking about our industries. For those of us who were positively excited about Labour’s colossal majority after the party won 411 of the 650 seats in the July 2024 general election, the past two years have been a huge disappointment.
The obvious nonsense that is the business rates system remains untouched. In the 14 years in opposition, could the brains of Labour not think up a better, more equitable method of raising taxes? Online traders continue to enjoy a significant financial advantage over bricks-and-mortar operators, while even charity shops like the British Heart Foundation are to close 150 stores over the next two years because running costs have got out of hand.
Many readers of this column will not need reminding of the extra burdens imposed on retailers by increases in the rates, the National Minimum Wage and employers’ National Insurance contributions has only led directly or indirectly to job losses, plus shop and business closures.
The Labour Party’s inept view of retailing was revealed again by its recent barmy suggestion that supermarkets ought to artificially hold down prices of some items. It would be funny if it was not so tragically alarming.
I cannot think of a single act by the Labour government that has assisted small businesses in this country. Or have I missed something?
Just as a related aside, I am feeling increasingly uncomfortable about the bags of swag some retail top dogs are talking home while bleating about what they pay their foot soldiers on the shop or warehouse floors.
Ken Murphy, Tesco’s boss, took home £9.23m or last year. Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts trousered £5.43 million. And outside the big grocers, Lord Wolfson at Next made £4.73m. At Burberry Joshua Shulman’s package was worth £2.6m, while JD Sports’ Régis Schultz picked up £2.04m.
Deciding whether these gents are “worth” these sums is something I’ll leave to others for now, but I note that Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons and Next are all currently fighting long-standing legal cases about shop workers (mainly women) being paid less than warehouse workers (mainly men).
But back to Wigan, if Andy Burnham wins, he has said he will challenge Keir Starmer to be leader of the Labour Party and hence prime minister. If Burnham succeeds in this, will his policies be any more advantageous to our industries than those of the past two years or so?
If Burnham doesn’t win in Makerfield or doesn’t overturn Starmer, will we see any change from Sir Keir the Prevaricator?
And if, heaven forbid, a Reform win in the upcoming by-election points to Nigel Farage being this country’s leader in the near future, what sort of improvements will any of us see?
