Dorset business leaders have joined the furore over the government’s planned National Insurance rise.

Tony Brown, chief executive of Beales, the Bournemouth headquartered department store, is one of over 60 business leaders, along with Sir Stuart Rose, the Marks & Spencer boss, to sign two letters complaining about the government planned one per cent rise in National Insurance (NI).

“I fully concur with Stuart Rose. If you make people more expensive to employ, you employ less,” Mr Brown said. “This is a job tax. You don’t tax those who are trying to create wealth. Increasing taxes in a boom is one thing, when there’s a bust you reduce them.

“I’m not making a political statement. This is about reducing waste in the government – bringing the government into the real world.”

If a business “faces a problem they reduce costs” he says, yet the government increases them.

Paul Crompton, finance director at Hamworthy Plc, the marine fluid-handling manufacturer in Poole, agreed: “NI is the wrong area to hit because it affects job creation. I would increase VAT and tax energy consumption.”

Hamworthy “took £11m out of costs in 2009” as a result of harsh trading conditions and Mr Crompton believes “efficiency savings should be made in the public sector”.

But Mark Constantine, the boss of Lush, the handmade cosmetics giant in Poole, launched a scathing attack on those wanting a reduction in NI, likening them to “a lot of prima donnas flouncing because their tax has been put up”.

The National Insurance debate “is not a big business issue”, Mr Constantine said.

“I agree with Gordon Brown and I don’t say that often.”

Mr Constantine, who has donated £10,000 to the Green Party candidate in Brighton, believes this election provides an opportunity for change.

“Vote for the policies you want and then agitate your MP to make sure they do it,” he urged.

Terry Atkinson, secretary at Christchurch Chamber of Trade and Commerce said the proposed rise in NI “is generally bad news for struggling businesses but like everything else, costs have been going up and this is a sign of things to come”.

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