Government Senate leader Colonel David Burch on Monday warned businesses to keep out of politics after some criticised the Progressive Labour Party (PLP).

He said he was "a little tired and a little weary" of retailers blaming Government and others, when these companies were not the financial geniuses they pretended to be.

Sen. Burch said recently the Chamber of Commerce and Bermuda Employers Council had said Government was "anti-business".

"They should leave politics to the politicians," he said during the tourism debate in the Senate.

Under the PLP, small businesses, restaurants, retailers and taxi drivers had benefited from a year of tax relief because payroll tax legislation had been extended to include them.

Admitting he didn't contribute much to their profits because he doesn't shop much for clothes here or overseas, he said he was "a little tired and a little weary" of retailers saying "it's the Government or its consumers that must change their ways when they have shown time and again they are not the great financial wizards they would have us believe".

Small business struggled to get a $2,000 loan, but a bigger business could get a $2 million loan, depending on their surname, he said.

"They talk about Government being anti-business? In what life?" he asked.

He admitted it did cause Government some "chagrin" that so many business breaks were going to those who already had money and there hadn't been a significant shift in wealth, but the PLP didn't want to "upset the apple cart" because companies employ people.