BRICKIES’ favourite Screwfix, bakery Greggs and the boss of McVities biscuits were among firms laying into the Chancellor’s raid on business yesterday.

McVitie’s biscuit maker Pladis accused Rachel Reeves of making Britain less attractive.

Boss Salman Amin said: “We would like to continue to be a major investor going forward. It’s becoming harder to understand what the case for investment is.”

Greggs boss Roisin Currie said the changes to national insurance contributions would add tens of millions of extra costs to the chain. Ms Currie said she would try to keep price rises to “pennies”.

The cost of its signature sausage roll has shot up from £1 to £1.40 in some parts of the country in the past few years.

Meanwhile DIY giant Kingfisher, which also owns B&Q, said the hit from the national insurance increase would cost it £31million this year.

Kingfisher said that it would seek to mitigate costs but did not say how.

The Confederation Of British Industry’s own survey found that half of businesses had said they would have to cut jobs to afford the £25billion tax raid.

Most will have to raise prices or curb their investment plans.

Their comments came as Ms Reeves faced accusations she unfairly targeted everyday businesses in order to appease big City funds and pension firms with a softer blow.

CBI chairman Sir Rupert Soames told The Sun that the Budget had “milked business. And it can’t keep whacking it.”

He said of the Chancellor’s earlier attempts to woo business that the “Government’s actions have to match its words. The trust is low and it will get lower.”

Industry veteran Sir Rupert, who is Winston Churchill’s grandson, said that Ms Reeves’s biggest economic issue was getting one million people back into work.

But her Budget had made it harder for firms to invest and hire people.

The Chancellor said the only alternative available to her big £25billion tax raid on business “was instability hanging over us for another year as people asked how are you going to make the sums add up?”.

Rain Newton Smith, CBI chief executive, said that the “heavy burden” of the Budget had meant it was “back to damage control” for many firms.

4

ITV buy-up rumoured

SHARES in ITV leapt almost ten per cent yesterday after the I’m A Celebrity broadcaster became the target of takeover speculation.

ITV, which also had a hit with Joan, starring Sophie Turner, is said to have caught the attention of private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

4

RedBird Capital-owned All3Media and Mediawan, which is backed by the private equity firm KKR, are also said to be potential bidders
ITV, which is run by Dame Carolyn McCall, is also considering a potential demerger of its studio business, according to Sky News.

In the past three years, the £2.7billion listed broadcaster has been hit by a slump in ad revenue, delays to new TV series caused by strikes and cost concerns on its ITVX streaming service.

Boost by Klarna’s ‘AI’ boss

KLARNA used a robot avatar of its chief executive yesterday to deliver the news its artificial intelligence drive is pushing it closer to profitability.

The boss of the buy now pay later firm Sebastian Siemiatkowski is a big promoter of AI and is using it to shrink Klarna’s workforce by 20 per cent a year.

4

He is also using the software to shed consultants, PRs, marketing costs and now film avatar videos of himself for communications.

As a result of its AI efficiency drive, Klarna said its pre-tax losses narrowed to 2million kroner (£144,000) compared to 1.77billion (£128million) kroner the year before.

Its revenues have jumped by almost a quarter to 20.3billion kroner (£1.47billion) as more retailers, including John Lewis sign up to its service.

Klarna recently filed confidential paperwork for a New York stock market listing.

Bank £40m hit

BARCLAYS has been hit with a £40 million fine after abandoning a court battle with the UK’s financial watchdog over deals struck with Qatar during the 2008 financial crisis.

The Financial Conduct Authority said Barclays’ conduct at the time was “reckless and lacked integrity” and that there was “no legitimate reason or excuse” for not being transparent with investors.

The FCA previously found the bank paid hundreds of millions of pounds in fees to certain Qatari entities.

The move was in exchange for billions of pounds of investment to keep it afloat.

Rates stay high

THE Bank Of England deputy governor dashed borrowers’ hopes yesterday as she said she supported a “gradual” lowering of interest rates.

Clare Lombardelli said it was too “early to declare victory on inflation”.

She was concerned that it would be more costly to raise rates again if inflation started to rise once more.

Traders think there is zero chance of another interest rate cut next month.

And British Retail Consortium figures show the pace of shop price cuts is already slowing.