I have shopped at Amazon, says TUC general secretary

The TUC’s general secretary has admitted she has shopped at online retail giant Amazon, despite concerns over its workers.

Frances O’Grady said people were “really frustrated” by the Government’s “tax cuts” to big tech corporations.

Asked if she shopped at Amazon, she told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “I have shopped at Amazon, but what I’m concerned about is the workers.”

She went on: “I think there’s going to be real change in the high street but I think what people feel really frustrated about is that this government is continuing to give away tax cuts to big corporations like Amazon, like Facebook, who are hardly paying any tax on the profits that they earn here.”

During his interview on the same programme, Chancellor Philip Hammond also admitted that he shopped online as well as in Guildford – as he said it was important to recognise that the high street will have to change.

Asked if he was an online shopper and if he used Amazon, he replied: “I am an online shopper. I do.”

He added: “The high street plays a critical role in many communities. But we have to recognise as well that the change that’s driving the evolution of our high street can’t be put back in the bottle.

“The British have taken to online shopping like no other nation on earth. For better or for worse, we have to recognise that that is happening. So our high streets have to change.

“We want to protect them because we want them to remain at the heart of our communities, but we can’t do that by freezing the model of 10 or 20 years ago in aspic, it won’t work.

“So we’ve got to help the High Street to evolve and the high street of the future frankly will have fewer retail outlets and more leisure destinations, more food and drink outlets. I expect that high streets of the future will be smaller with more of the peripheral areas around them redeveloped as housing.”