Leon co-founder John Vincent slams government for ‘destroying business’

Leon co-founder John Vincent, who bought back the healthy fast food chain from EG Group last October, has said he has been surprised with how “imaginative the government could be in destroying business.”

Speaking to The Telegraph, Vincent said the government “has a lot of good ideas of how to destroy businesses, and it is deploying them. You start to wonder if it is doing it deliberately.”

Vincent slammed politicians including Tony Blair and Keir Starmer for having studied disciplines such as Law or Philosophy, Politics and Economic, both of which have “nothing to do with life.”

“When you only have a hammer, every problem looks nail shaped. When you are a lawyer, you default to legislation. But when you have not been part of a thriving entrepreneurial community, you don’t know how they tick,” he continued.

Vincent also said he wanted “Leon to get as big as it can without being sh*t” under his ownership.

The healthy food chain lost more than £60m in five years under the ownership of EG Group, which acquired the chain from its co-founders, including Vincent, in 2021.