30 more business leaders back Tories on National Insurance – Telegraph

General Election 2010: 30 more business leaders back Tories on National Insurance – Telegraph.

30 more business leaders back Tories on National Insurance

Another 30 leading business leaders have backed the Conservative pledge not to increase National Insurance next year.

They include the chief executives or chairmen of Corus, Northern Foods, Reed Elsevier, Easyjet, Travelodge and House of Fraser.

In total, the heads of 68 of the country’s biggest businesses have now backed the Conservative policy of cutting Government waste rather than increasing National Insurance. They employ almost one million people.

All the country’s major business groups have also called for the proposed increase on the “tax on jobs” to be scrapped.

The new names were released by the Conservatives minutes before the last Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament before the general election.

David Cameron accused the Prime Minister of threatening to “kill the [economic] recovery” if pushing ahead with the tax rise.

“Does the Prime Minister know more about job creation than business leaders?” Mr Cameron asked. “This Government would wreck the recovery.”

Gordon Brown defended the National Insurance rise saying he would rather increase taxes than cut frontline public services.

The new names were released hours after Mr Brown used a television interview to attack business leaders who were campaigning against National Insurance rises. He accused the business leaders of being “deceived” by Conservative election promises.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Brown: “I think they have been deceived because the big issue at the moment is can we sustain the recovery.”

He told GMTV: ”Britain is on the road to recovery. Don’t put that at risk. The Conservative’s policy would take £6 billion out of the economy. That is a huge sum of money to take out of the economy.”

However, Mr Brown declined to repeat the accusation that business leaders were being deceived when repeatedly pressed to do so in Parliament.

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said Mr Brown had “declared war on British business” ahead of the May 6 election.

Mr Brown’s comments come after Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, last week accused David Cameron of “peddling a deception on businesses up and down the country and on the British people.”

Both Mr Brown and Lord Mandelson spent years cultivating business backing to show that New Labour could be trusted with the economy.

The new business leaders to support the scrapping of the one pence in the pound increase in National Insurance are: Kirby Adams, Chief Executive, Corus; Surinder Arora, Chairman, Arora International Hotels; Stefan Barden, Chief Executive, Northern Foods; Robert Bensoussan, Executive Chairman, LK Bennett; Simon Blagden, Chairman, Fujitsu Telecommunications (Europe); Tony Brown, Chief Executive, Beales; Chris Dawson, Founder and Managing Director, The Range; Sir John Egan; Ralph Findlay, Chief Executive, Marston’s plc; Stephen Goodyear, Chief Executive, Young & Co’s Brewery PLC; Anthony Habgood, Chairman, Reed Elsevier; Andy Harrison, Chief Executive, easyJet; Peter Harrison, Chief Executive, Furniture Village; Grant Hearn, Chief Executive, Travelodge; Peter Hindle, Chief Executive, Jewson; Neil Hornby, Chairman, Hornby plc and Umeco plc; Luke Johnson, Founder of Risk Capital Partners and Chairman of Royal Society of Arts; John King, Chief Executive, House of Fraser; Richard Kirk, Chief Executive, The Peacock Group; Simon Lockett, Chief Executive, Premier Oil Plc; Rick Medlock, CFO, Inmarsat Plc; Mike Norris, Chief Executive, Computacenter; Tony Pidgeley, Group Chairman, Berkeley Group Holdings Plc; Jamie Ritblat, Chief Executive, Delancey; Nick Robertson, Chief Executive, ASOS; Tim Steiner, Chief Executive, Ocado; Michael Turner, Chief Executive, Fuller, Smith & Turner Plc; Tom Wells, Chairman, Charles Wells Ltd and Muntons plc; Nick Wheeler, Founder, Charles Tyrwhitt; Bob Wigley, Chairman of Sovereign Reversions plc.

Advertisement