Lovering strikes out at red tape in his speech at the Retail Week Conference
Debenhams chairman John Lovering has lambasted the Government for 'politically correct cost creation', and fears the pleas of Gerry Murphy, the retail industry's new 'red tape tzar,' will fall on deaf ears.

'Politicians love regulation and red tape, that is how they fill their days,' said Lovering at the Retail Week Conference today.

Kingfisher chief executive Gerry Murphy accepted the position of the DTI's retail champion earlier this year, but Lovering predicts he will 'get frustrated'.

He foresees no easing of the industry's regulatory burden and predicts that if Labour is returned to power this year, Chancellor Gordon Brown, who will deliver his Budget address later today, will whip out 'the begging bowl'; raising the spectre of higher interest or tax rates.