Employers ARE Working People: Emma Reynolds Must Resign, and the Chancellor Must Explain Himself
1 Nov 2026 · Started by Collette Osborne, Founder of Salon Owners United and Chair of the British Hair Consortium

To the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and HM Treasury

Employers, employees, of the United Kingdom, call on the Prime Minister to accept the resignation of Emma Reynolds MP as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and call on the Chancellor, John Healey, and HM Treasury to explain publicly why the Budget of 28 October 2026 failed to back Britain's employers and the employees who depend on them.

What was said
On Sunday 1 November 2026, on The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury was asked whether the Government had raised taxes on working people. Her answer:

"I don't think employers are working people, they are companies."

When challenged, she did not withdraw it. She repeated that she was drawing a distinction between employees and employers. She then acknowledged that she herself employs a cleaner, but would not say whether that made her a working person.

This is not a slip of the tongue. It is a window into how the Treasury sees the millions of people who open the shutters at 7am, cover the shift when a colleague is off sick, pay wages before they pay themselves, and lie awake at night working out how to make payroll.

Employers are people. Employers work.
The vast majority of UK employers are not faceless corporations. They are:

The salon owner who cuts hair all day and does the books all night
The café owner who started with one counter and now employs eight local people
The builder, the plumber, the electrician who took on an apprentice
The care home manager, the garage owner, the family shopkeeper
The mum who turned a kitchen-table idea into a business that now pays four salaries

Around 99% of UK businesses are small or medium-sized. Most are run by people who work longer hours than anyone they employ, often for less. To tell them they are "not working people" is an insult to every one of them.

Without employers, the Treasury has nothing to spend
Employers are the engine that funds the state:

Employers collect the country's income tax and National Insurance. Through PAYE, employers run the payroll system that delivers the Government's two largest sources of revenue, unpaid, on HMRC's behalf.
Employers pay Employer National Insurance on every job they create, on top of wages, pensions, holiday pay, sick pay and rising compliance costs.

Employers create the jobs, train the apprentices and keep high streets alive. Every wage packet in the private sector exists because someone took the risk to create it.
Employers pay business rates, corporation tax and VAT, and bear energy, rent and insurance costs that keep rising.

If employers stopped employing, the tax receipts that pay for the NHS, schools, pensions and public services would collapse. The Government does not fund employers. Employers fund the Government.

The Chancellor and the Chief Secretary have failed employers
The 28 October Budget was sold as giving people "breathing space". For employers it offered very little:

Frozen income tax and National Insurance thresholds continue to drag employers and their staff into higher tax, year after year.

Tax on savings and property income will rise by a further two percentage points from April 2027, on top of the increase already announced. Many small business owners rely on their savings and property to fund their business, their pension, or their retirement. The Government's position appears to be that these people are not "working people" either.

No meaningful relief on employment costs. The Employer National Insurance rise remains in place, with no reversal and no relief for the small employers who were hit hardest.
A handful of rates tweaks are no substitute for a plan for the businesses that employ most of the private-sector workforce.

The Labour manifesto promised not to raise taxes on working people. Now we know how that promise was kept: by deciding that the people who create the jobs do not count.

Voices from employers
"Employing people is one of the hardest jobs there is." (James Cartlidge MP, responding on X)
Camilla Tominey put it simply on air: she works six days a week and employs a cleaner. Is she not a working person?

What we are asking for

The resignation of Emma Reynolds as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. A minister who does not recognise employers as working people cannot be trusted to set the tax policy that decides whether they survive.
A public explanation from the Chancellor and HM Treasury, following this statement, setting out:

• Whether the Chancellor agrees that employers are not working people;
  the Government's official definition of "working people";
• Why the Budget failed to back employers and the employees whose jobs depend on them;
  a full impact assessment of the Budget on small employers, their staff and the high street.
• The Chancellor and the Chief Secretary to appear before the Treasury Select Committee to answer for these remarks and for the Budget's impact on employers.
• A formal apology to the UK's employers, the people who create the jobs and collect the taxes that keep this country running.

Why you should sign
Whether you run a business or work for one, this affects you. When employers are squeezed, jobs are cut, hours are reduced, apprenticeships disappear and high streets empty. Standing up for employers is standing up for employees.

Employers are working people. Sign now and share this petition with every business owner, every employee you know