Dan Neidle

I can see why Andy Burnham maybe doesn't want to, but maybe he should.

Yeah, I'm not an economist.

I'm a tax guy.

But when I speak to economists, I'm always struck by the gulf between what the economists say and what the politicians say.

The politicians will say we need to support small business.

Small business needs to be the priority.

The economists say small business is less efficient, less productive, doesn't drive growth.

We should not be supporting small business.

We should be having a level playing field.

I'm not going to take sides on that, and I don't have the expertise to judge it, but I will say this.

Hospitality is under pressure, demanding a VAT cut.

They're not the only people under pressure.

Social care, childcare, retail, arts, leisure.

Yeah, everyone's under pressure.

When we start handing out VAT cuts, business rate cuts, to someone because they have attractive lobbyists who are able to make powerful arguments and shoot nice videos...

Where is it going to stop?

So governments need to say no.

They need to think less about handing out favours to their favourite sectors and more about not doing stuff that damages those sectors.

And the tax rise in employers' national insurance was seen at the time.

In fact, before it happened, I said it would be the worst possible tax increase.