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Brewdog boss slams ministers for 'lacking business experience', and says Brits are 'bitter about successful people'
22 January 2025, 16:32 | Updated: 22 January 2025, 17:05
Brewdog founder James Watt speaks to Tom Swarbrick
The founder of Brewdog has hit out at Labour ministers for lacking business experience - and said it's evident from their decisions on the economy.
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James Watt told LBC's Tom Swarbrick that the lack of business experience in the Cabinet was "a massive failing".
Many members of the Cabinet either worked in the public sector or in trade unions, or as lawyers before coming to power, and none are thought to have started their own business.
Some critics highlighted this after the Budget in October, suggesting that this lack of knowledge may have contributed to policy decisions such as raising employers' national insurance.
Mr Watt, whose pub chain is thought to have over 100 locations, compared the situation in the UK negatively to the US.
He said: "If you look at the UK Secretary for Business, he's never worked in a business, let alone done a business. If you look at the Secretary for Commerce in the US, they've got a huge amount of business experience."
Labour's Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is a trained solicitor and has otherwise worked in local and national politics. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, worked for the Bank of England.
Mr Watts added: "I definitely think it's an issue with the current government, the lack of business experience they've got.
"And I think we're seeing that in some of the decisions they're making, which are tough for business, tough for job creation and tough for us trying to build our economy."
Mr Watt said that the UK should slash taxes on businesses and wealth, in order to attract more entrepreneurs and wealthy people.
"For me, the people in the UK that create the jobs, that build the businesses that create economic wellbeing for the country that pay a disproportionately high percentage for taxes is just so, so important," he said.
He pointed towards the rising rate of millionaires leaving the UK - a trend that is thought to have accelerated since Labour took office in July.
"These are the people that drive economic opportunity. Like I said, they pay a disproportionate high share of tax. So the more friendly we can make the UK to people who are... building businesses, who are creating jobs, I think the better society we can build here overall."
But Mr Watt also claimed that the UK suffers from a cultural issue that means wealth creation is less celebrated than in the US.
"I spend a lot of time in the US and in the US, if someone's successful, you find people cheering them on, you find people celebrating that success because they're so inculcated with American dream is they're thinking 'that could be me'," he said.
"Whereas in the UK we don't have that. So there tends to be a kind of inbuilt cynicism, bitterness sometimes, a kind of resentment towards people who are successful - because people don't believe they can go out and do that themselves."
