Reeves urged not to hit firms with more taxes

> Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has been urged by the CBI not to inflict ‘death by a thousand taxes’ on British businesses in tomorrow's Budget

- Leon Neal

and make the hard choices to deliver it. “Prove it - against opposition, against short-term politics, be it on welfare, be it pension increases, show the markets you mean business,’ she said

“Short-term politics leads to a long-term decline, and this country cannot afford another decade of stagnation.

“That means making hard choices for growth now before they get harder, having the courage to take two tough decisions rather than 20 easier ones.

“Raising the headroom to make promises stick, it means one or two broad tax rises, rather than death by a thousands taxes.”

Ms Newton-Smith said businesses could not cope with another tax hit on the scale of the Chancellor's last budget.

She said: “I think what businesses are worried about on Wednesday is that we don’t want to be back in Groundhog Day.

“Last year we saw a huge increase in business taxation of £24bn per year. So the overall taxation on business is at decades-high levels.