Sir Rocco Forte: Business is being used as a cash cow

Sir Rocco Forte has criticized Rishi Sunak’s government for its lack of vision, saying it uses business as a ‘cow for them to milk’.

The successful hotelier – one of Britain’s most recognized entrepreneurs – said the plans revealed this month to raise taxes as Britain plunges into recession are “completely counterintuitive” and would lead to a more serious downturn.

Raising corporate taxes is a “fundamental mistake,” he said.

He also denounced plans to freeze tax thresholds, which he says remove the incentive for middle earners to work hard.

The Mail on Sunday has calculated that freezing thresholds for a further two years – a stealth tax – will siphon more than £50bn in additional taxes from workers by 2028.

What element of encouragement is there for the ideal of free enterprise? What motivation is there to strive and strive?’ he said in an op-ed published in full this weekend on The Mail+.

Forte said scrapping plans for Enterprise Zones is also “damaging.” He added: “There just isn’t any vision for the future.”

Forte expressed concern that Brexit is being “challenged” and that “before we know what happened, we will be back in the European Union.”

He said: ‘I work in the European Union and things are even bleaker there than here.’ He said, ‘We’ve been told we’re in the hands of the adults now. I know plenty of adults who have never achieved anything in their lives, who have had no ambition and are willing to go with the flow.

“There were a lot of adults in the 1970s when the country was in a bigger mess than it is now.

“It took a visionary to change it. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be Mrs Thatcher around today.’