Lush boss says shoppers who oppose his views on Gaza shouldn’t shop at his stores
Lush’s co-founder said those who oppose him on important issues such as Gaza should not shop in his stores.
Mark Constantine OBE, who led the closure of Lush stores earlier this year in solidarity with people in Gaza, said people “shouldn’t come into my shop” if they disagreed with his stance.
Speaking in BBC’s Big Boss Interview podcastMr Constantine said he believed in being “kind, sympathetic and compassionate” and said people “won’t get along very well with me” if they are “rude to others”.
“I’m often called a leftist because I’m interested in compassion. I don’t think being compassionate has a political stance, I think being kind, being sympathetic, being compassionate is something we can all do and want to do in certain areas.”
When asked if his stance would affect business, for example if someone decided not to shop at Lush because of its stance on Gaza, he said: “Absolutely, that’s what you do. [the shopper] should do. You shouldn’t come to my shop. Because I will take the profit you give me and make more, so you should definitely not support me.
“The only question is, who are you going to support and what are you going to support when you do it, what is your position?”
He added: “It’s up to people to hunt foxes and shoot pheasants, it’s up to them to decide, but I don’t approve of it.”
In September, the cosmetics chain closed all its UK stores and shut down its website for a day in solidarity with starving people in Gaza.
In a statement on its website, the company said: “We share the pain felt by millions of people across the Lush business seeing images of people starving to death in Gaza, Palestine.”
The business, which does business in more than 50 countries, said that it placed messages saying “Stop starving Gaza, we are closed for solidarity” on the windows of closed shops.
Speaking on the BBC podcast, Mr Constantine also criticized the government’s changes to inheritance tax from 6 April 2026; These changes will see all exemptions for family businesses removed, leaving only the first £1 million tax-free.
“They don’t understand the power of family businesses… and they are being sold on their belief in a greedy culture,” he said, adding that there was a risk of people selling their businesses rather than paying inheritance tax.
