New Budget blow for Starmer as retailers warn of price hikes and job cuts

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Keir Starmer faces a fresh Budget headache as retailers warn of higher prices and job cuts following disappointing sales in the crucial Christmas “golden quarter”. open image in gallery Festive season shopping failed to bolster retailers’ hopes for 2025, the BRC says Retailers will be particularly hard hit by chancellor Rachel Reeves’s planned hike to employers’ national insurance, which will see a 1.2 percentage point rise to 15 per cent and more lower-paid workers caught by the tax as the threshold for payment is lowered. “These figures lay bare just how tough things are for our retail sector currently and the new government’s ill-judged national insurance hike is set to only make things worse,” she said. Firms of all shapes and sizes are telling us the national insurance hike is particularly damaging.” Business confidence is now at its lowest since Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, which sent borrowing costs spiralling in 2022.