Brokers and business owners have criticised the length and substance of Jeremy Hunt’s speech at the Conservative party conference, with one saying, witheringly, “more hot air and pointless white noise.”
Another described it simply as “inspiration free”.
Speaking with Newspage, broker opinions can be found below.
Reaction:
Graham Cox, founder at Self Employed Mortgage Hub:
“It’s clear from Jeremy Hunt’s inspiration-free speech, that this zombie Government have completely given up the ghost.
“They know they’re staring into the electoral abyss and quite rightly, too.
“There was next to nothing significant about boosting the economy, so just like this government, it will be left to limp along.”
Michelle Lawson, director- mortgage & protection adviser at Lawson Financial Ltd:
“More hot air and pointless white noise.
“This bunch really have lost touch with the very people that they serve and who pay their wages.
“November will be interesting however, if any of their previous history is to go by, I fear the statement will be full of more unachievable numbers, ill-thought-out policy and another nail in the coffin for our economy that they appear hellbent on crashing.”
Riz Malik, founder & director at R3 Mortgages:
“The speech might as well have been crafted and presented by artificial intelligence (AI), it felt that wooden.
“With the Government’s strategy of combating inflation in mind, raising the national minimum wage arguably has an inflationary impact.
“There was no mention of the dire property market.
“There was no mention of supporting business owners on their knees or households unable to make ends meet. I would grade it E5.”
Stephen Perkins, managing director at Yellow Brick Mortgages:
“This was a wasted opportunity to have a positive impact on battling inflation before the Autumn Statement in November.
“Whilst the increase in minimum wage will be very welcomed by millions of employees, the cost of this to employers will be directly passed onto consumers, mitigating the benefit and further stoking the inflation fire.”
Justin Moy, managing director at EHF Mortgages:
“I think many of us expected much more from the speech.
“It was almost as if the auto-cue had cut him off in his pomp.
“The national minimum wage increase is immensely important to so many people, but bizarrely it may just push inflation on a bit further, as employers pass those extra costs onto the consumer.
“The Chancellor had the ideal opportunity to speak more about the economy, but perhaps said more by saying less?”
John Lamerton, author and lifestyle business owner at Big Ideas… for Small Businesses:
“Once again, small business owners are left footing the bill for the rise in the minimum wage, while the Government takes all the credit, along with ever-increasing tax hauls from small businesses after rises in National Insurance and Corporation Tax, reductions in capital gains and dividend allowances, and frozen personal allowances.”
