If one goes to Europe, now it's absolutely heaving -- every hotel is full, he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. Britain is below the pre-Covid numbers. He said they're going to go to France instead of to us to do all that luxury shopping.
The other aspect that people don't realize is that if you buy high-ticket items, you can get a tax-free deal on that product.
As we saw in I think it was the 80s when people used to do booze cruises, it will be worth getting on a plane, getting on a boat and going to France or going to mainland Europe and doing their shopping. He said that if the government didn't tackle rising prices, the country's wages are going to go down a very difficult path of spiralling out of control. He said that money could be used to help people that need it through this winter and possibly a VAT decrease to make sure inflation and wage costs don't get out of control this winter.
Combined with the windfall tax on oil and gas companies, the government would have the money to take VAT off energy bills and possibly reduce it on other products too, he said.