What the papers say: Why Sajid Javid needs to listen up to shopkeepers

If Britain really is still a nation of shopkeepers, the Government seems to be picking its enemies rather unwisely with its plans to ramp up business rates – in some cases by as much as 400 per cent over the next five years. The policy – and the somewhat bungled attempt by Communities Secretary Sajid Javid to defend the plans – has already sparked a big row, which shows no signs of calming down. The Daily Mail is clear who we should point the finger at: Sajid Javid. The paper says the Communities Secretary made a ’magnificent’ arrival on the frontline of British politics with his speech in 2015 in which he promised that the Government would be a ‘true friend’ to business owners. He seems to have forgotten those warm words, the Mail says. After all, with some 500,000 firms looking at 300 per cent rises in business rates from April, Javid is less interested in ‘speaking up for those who will suffer from the new rates’ and more keen instead to ‘defend the indefensible’.