Rachel Reeves claims yet another victim – how does she sleep at night? | Personal Finance | Finance

Once again, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has her fingers all over this one. An awful lot of businesses will meet a sticky end on her watch. Does she even care?

This morning, one of Britain’s oldest department stores announced it will close as a direct result of her autumn Budget.

Beales, which opened in Bournemouth in 1881, shutters its remaining store in Poole’s Dolphin Centre at the end of May.

Chief executive Tony Brown pinned the closure on the Labour Chancellor’s disastrous autumn Budget.

Beales couldn’t survive the surge in staff costs caused by Reeves’s hike to employer’s national insurance, coupled with an inflation-busting increase in the minimum wage.

Both come into force in April. Beales realised its days were numbered. “This, coupled with the risks and uncertainty of further tax increases in the coming years, have left us no other option,” Mr Brown said.

Brown is planning an orderly exit to ensure nobody suffers a financial loss. If only Reeves was so diligent.

All across the country, businesses are doing their best, just like Beales. But it isn’t enough.

Beales is just the latest in an endless string of store closures. Not all of which can be pinned on Labour of course.

The rise of online shopping, the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis all played a part.

But the Budget delivered a killer blow.

In the immediate aftermath, Deutsche Bank claimed it would destroy 100,000 jobs. It was wrong. An estimated 300,000 will go in the retail sector alone. The Budget is turning into a bloodbath.

Imagine being responsible for that? I couldn’t live with myself.

Politicians wreck lives and simply move on. Power does that to you, I suppose.

If I were former Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown, I’d be filled with remorse for wrecking the nation’s gold-plated pensions and flogging our gold reserves for pennies.

Yet he clunks around looking full of himself.

If I were former Tory Chancellor George Osborne, I’d be guilt-riddled over how austerity had strangled growth. Yet he slicks about, filling his pockets.

And if I were Liz Truss… no, let’s not go there.

I recently listed 20 major errors Reeves has already made. It didn’t take long.

Pensioners, farmers, business owners, savers, taxpayers and workers are all paying the price. Think of all the human misery that entails.

Does Reeves think about them when her head hits the pillow? I doubt she’s given Beales a second thought. Just moved onto her next victim.