More than 100 business leaders have given their support to Britain’s opposition Labour Party before a July 4 election, saying the kingdom needs to end the instability and stagnation that has dogged the economy.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservatives have typically been the party of big business, but Labour’s finance policy chief, Rachel Reeves, has spent years courting business owners in a bid to show her party can be trusted to run the economy.
The letter, signed by current and former chief executives in retail, advertising, travel and finance, said that Labour had shown it had changed and should be given a chance to shape the UK’s future.
Photo: AP
“We, as leaders and investors in British business, believe that it is time for a change,” the letter said.
“We are in urgent need of a new outlook to break free from the stagnation of the last decade and we hope by taking this public stand we might persuade others of that need, too,” it said.
Labour will hope the endorsement shows that it is no longer the party of Keir Starmer’s predecessor, veteran left-wing lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn, who campaigned at the last election in 2019 to renationalize some key assets and hike taxes on the rich.
Leaders who signed the letter include the boss of retailer Iceland, the chairman of JD Sports, the head of the UK arm of ad giant WPP, the former CEO of Aston Martin and the founder of a children’s company that once included Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, as an investor.
Starmer’s Labour have held an about 20-point lead in polls for almost a year. It has accused the government of 14 years of economic mismanagement, failing to give business the stability it craves and leaving people worse off.
Britain’s economic performance since the COVID-19 pandemic has been the weakest among the G7 economies with the exception of Germany, weighed down by high levels of debt and stuck in a rut of slow growth.
Reeves was to say later yesterday that the endorsement shows that Labour can bring business investment back to Britain.
“Our plans for growth are built on partnership with business,” she was to say.
Sunak’s Conservative Party says it has had to steer the economy through the twin shocks of COVID-19 and the energy spike that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A recent drop in inflation shows that the economy is back on track, it said.
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