The UK government’s forthcoming rises in National Insurance contributions and the minimum wage announced in last month’s Budget “make British businesses less competitive”, according to Adil Mehboob-Khan, the boss of London upscale department store Liberty.

The government is hindering the high street with policies that are “making us less competitive”, he told The Telegraph newspaper.

Mehboob-Khan said retailers had endured a “rough ride” under the new government after chancellor Rachel Reeves raised employers’ National Insurance contributions and the minimum wage in the Budget, despite the proposals not being introduced until next April.

He said: “All of the changes are part of the same story really, which is that they all go towards making us less competitive. Generally speaking, these are not easy times.”

He said the government would have been better to focus on “direct taxation rather than stealth taxation”, adding: “It’s a well studied phenomena what happens when you [have stealth taxes] is that it doesn’t impact immediately. It does impact eventually.”

All that said, times are good at the moment and of the store’s performance so far, he added: “This year, we’re having a good year. We’re not impacted by these things yet. But we will be next year and we certainly wouldn’t want to lose momentum because of our costs going up.”

He added: “If the year ended now, it would be our best on record. We have to wait to see until February but we are heading for our best ever year.”

He also noted Christmas is seeing a surge of shoppers at its landmark store. “Christmas is when the year is made,” Mehboob-Khan said. “For us, it’s been so far, so good.”

On the previous government’s decision to axe tax-free shopping for overseas visitors, which has been blamed for a slowdown in Britain’s luxury retail sector, the Liberty chief said the strength of the retailer’s brand in Britain “had helped to shield it from the worst impacts of the tourist tax”.

He said: “We’re maybe less affected than others though. Liberty is a store which has an incredible amount of aficionados locally. In fact, 70% of our customers are local.”