Wilko collapse: Watch moment boss Lisa Wilkinson tells MP she 'let down' Wilko staff and shoppers after collapse

The former boss of high street retailer Wilko has said Liz Truss’s mini-Budget last year was a contributing factor to the chain’s collapse in the summer. Giving evidence to a committee of MPs in Parliament, Lisa Wilkinson - who was chairman of the eponymous high street shop which was started by her family 93 years earlier was asked whether she was “burgling a failing business”, over £77m worth of dividends taken out from the company in the decade prior to its collapse.

But she said Liz Truss’s unfunded tax cuts, which caused panic in financial markets and sent interest rates soaring, were “an external contributor” to the store’s demise.

The budget store chain entered difficulties in 2022 causing Barclays to recall a loan. Ms Wilkinson explained how the company was in discussions with Australian financial giant Macquarie to secure new funding to sustain the business when the mini-budget sent interest rates soaring.

“We were about to enter into secured lending arrangements with Macquarie when the 2022 mini-budget happened,” she said. “Literally we were in the midst of that, and at that point the interest terms on that loan were hiked massively and that became infeasible. So, that was a contributor.”

The company’s collapse in August this year led to 12,000 job losses and uncertainty over a pension fund worth £50m.