Business owners in Kew were paid a visit by Danny Alexander last week.

The chief secretary to the Treasury met business owners on a tour on Thursday, September 5, with parliamentary candidate Robin Meltzer and Councillor Jean-Francois Burford, who represents Kew ward.

The Liberal Democrat cabinet member said: “Having met many small business owners with our Parliamentary candidate Robin Meltzer, it has never been more evident that our strategy to ensure that large multinationals pay their fair share of tax is vital if we hope to build a stronger and fairer economy.

“Small businesses are essential to the local community, and the message coming through is that every business must pay their fair share of tax to ensure an even playing field to protect small business owners who are playing by the rules.”

Owner of Kew Bookshop Isla Dawes, who also has shops in Barnes and Sheen, pointed Mr Alexander’s attention towards her poster on tax and said the Government should create a hard-hitting publicity campaign to encourage people to support local shops.

She said: “It says ‘Last year we paid enough corporation tax to pay for a student nurse, with your help we could pay for a teacher too’.”

The bookshop owner said big companies such as Amazon were ruining small businesses.

She said: “It was definitely a worthwhile visit, I felt like he really listened to what I had to say.

“For someone like me it is not very often that I get to meet somebody at his level so to have his ear for 15 minutes is an opportunity that I had to take.”

 

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