Rachel Reeves “should cut taxes to stimulate growth”, Baroness Helena Morrissey has said, as she urged the chancellor to “think again” on hiking rates.
Speaking to Sky’s Wilfred Frost on his The Master Investor Podcast, the Conservative peer and former financier said there is “a sense of decay about” the UK.
“We really are in a very difficult position,” she added, “here in the UK we are really suffering as well as people try to work out what is the escape route from this doom loop that we seem to be getting ourselves in.”
When asked what advice she would give the chancellor, Baroness Morrissey said “obviously we also have a very high personal tax burden compared with where people can work”, before noting how people go to work in the Middle East and Bermuda, which have lower to no taxes.
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“I’m saying this having walked into the studio… in the midst of the Tube strikes, so there’s a sense of decay about the country,” she said.
“That doesn’t help. So definitely… I would reverse all the efforts on the fiscal front… the tax… she should cut taxes to stimulate growth.
“I know that’s not what she’s going to do, but if you’re listening Rachel, please think again because it’s counterproductive at this point. You’re driving great people away.”
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Why taxes might go up
Elsewhere, Baroness Morrissey was asked about her work founding the 30% Club – a campaign group of business chairs and executives aiming to increase gender diversity on boards and senior management teams.
The campaign was set up in 2010, while she was working as chief executive at Newton Investment Management. It has since exceeded its goal for the UK’s markets, with women making up 44.7% of FTSE 100 board roles by the end of last year.
“Clearly, I was under-ambitious,” she told Frost, “but it’s very exciting that we made that progress.”
However, the peer said she thinks “some DEI [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] initiatives unfortunately ended up being sort of the opposite of inclusive”, adding that some “were very much making people feel part of the problem rather than part of the solution”.
Referencing the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a Trump supporter and right-wing influencer who was fatally shot in the neck last week, the baroness said: “I just think we just got ourselves into a terrible spiral downwards where people just will now shoot someone rather than have the argument.”
Baroness Morrissey was speaking on The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, available to watch in full here and listen here.
