The approach of business to general elections is not what it was.
Not that long ago, it was common for big corporates to make donations to political parties, including big FTSE 100 names such as SmithKline Beecham, United Biscuits, General Accident and Whitbread.
Most of these donations would go to the Conservatives but there were some companies, such as Marks & Spencer and Pearson, which also made donations to other parties.
Some, such as Hanson – whose founder Lord Hanson was a loyal supporter of Margaret Thatcher – continued to do so even after the 1992 Cadbury Report recommended companies stop making contributions to political parties.
Even after the political contributions dried up, FTSE 100 chief executives were not shy about endorsing or criticising politicians at election time.
In 1997, a number of well-known business people including Robert Ayling of British Airways, Bob Bauman of the old British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) and George Simpson of GEC endorsed Tony Blair’s Labour ahead of that year’s election, while John Major’s Conservatives also had plenty of backers.
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Business people were also happy to speak out about particular policies. Ahead of the 1997 election, BT’s chairman, Sir Iain Vallance, lashed out at Labour’s proposals for a windfall tax on the privatised utilities while Brian Stewart, chief executive of the pubs and brewing giant Scottish & Newcastle, criticised Labour’s plans to create a Scottish Parliament with tax-raising powers.
None of that happens any more. Most CEOs, while having their own political opinions like the rest of us, prefer to keep them to themselves. The more astute, realising that it makes sense to speak to politicians, are careful to ensure they are seen to be behaving even-handedly and not expressing a preference for one side or the other.
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Business wish-lists
That does not mean businesses do not have their own wish-lists of policies.
This is particularly true of small businesses. Their wish-list has not changed in the last couple of decades and is topped by wanting a change in the law to enforce prompt payments from larger businesses to their suppliers and the reform of business rates, which is also a bugbear for larger companies in sectors such as retail and hospitality.
Higher up the corporate food chain, what big businesses crave most is clarity and consistency in policy.
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Why has an election been called?
As Dame Amanda Blanc, chief executive of insurance, savings and pensions giant Aviva, told Sky News today: “Obviously we’re apolitical. What we want is for the environment to be one where we can invest, with certainty. You know, we want consistency and stability and so that whoever is the winner of the election, we want the election to be decisive, and we really want there to be certainty for us to be able to invest in things like UK infrastructure.”
Dame Amanda, who has served on both the prime minister’s business council and on the business taskforce put together by shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, added: “We’ve invested £9.5bn in UK infrastructure in the last three years.
Image: Dame Amanda Blanc has been chief executive of Aviva since July 2020.
“Our commitment is £25bn over the next 10 years. In order to do that, you have to have a more certain environment. And so that’s what we look forward to.”
That desire for stability and consistency was why the brief tenure of Liz Truss in 10 Downing Street was so damaging and why, off the record, a lot of business executives will admit to being grateful to Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt for restoring order to public finances after the firestorm created by Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget in September 2022.
They feel it is the first time, since David Cameron was in office, that a PM had the corporate world’s back. Theresa May alienated a lot of globe-trotting CEOs with her infamous 2016 speech in which she said “if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere”. She was replaced by Boris Johnson who, as foreign secretary in 2018, infamously said “f*** business.” And then came Ms Truss.
If business leaders are grateful to Messrs Sunak and Hunt, there is also warmth towards Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Reeves for their constructive approach.
Yes, there is some unease about deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner’s proposals to ban zero-hours contracts, end fire and rehire and to give workers full rights and protections from day one of their employment.
But there is a sense that after the leadership of Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, who went into the 2019 election campaign threatening to nationalise much of the energy industry, the water industry and BT’s broadband network, this is the most pro-business Labour leadership since the days of the much-missed Tony Blair.
While big businesses chiefly seek stability and consistency of policy, that is not to say they do not have specific wish-lists of their own.
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The big leisure, hospitality and luxury goods companies would like the restoration of VAT-free shopping for international visitors, the loss of which, they argue, has driven business away from the UK to destinations like Paris and Milan.
Most businesses with property interests – which is nearly all of them – would like to see a more coherent planning regime. Housebuilders would like a relaxation of rules requiring a proportion of housing developments are devoted to affordable homes.
Shoplifting scourge
Retailers would like the police to be required to make tackling the scourge of shoplifting a greater priority.
Manufacturers, in particular, would like to see an easing to some trade frictions that have built up since Brexit.
And carmakers – currently under threat of being fined if a certain proportion of their sales are not electric vehicles – would like to see a restoration of government incentives to buy EVs and for the roll-out of EV charging points.
Businesses, it is often pointed out, do not have votes.
But they do create the jobs and wealth on which this country relies. Those hitting the campaign trail over the next six weeks will need no reminding of that.
The owners of Hovis and Kingsmill, two of Britain’s leading bread producers, are in talks about a historic merger amid a decades-long decline in the sale of supermarket loaves.
Sky News has learnt that Associated British Foods (ABF), the London-listed company which owns Kingsmill’s immediate parent, Allied Bakeries, and Hovis, which is owned by investment firm Endless, have been involved in prolonged discussions about a combination of the two businesses.
City sources said this weekend that the talks were ongoing, but that there was no certainty that a deal would be finalised.
Bankers are said to be working with both sides on the talks about a transaction.
A deal could be structured as an acquisition of Hovis by ABF, according to analysts, although details about the mechanics of a merger or the valuations attached to the two businesses were unclear this weekend.
ABF is also said to be exploring other options for the future of Allied Bakeries which do not include a deal with Hovis.
If completed, a merger would unite two of Britain’s best-known ambient food brands, with Allied Bakeries having been founded in 1935 by Willard Garfield Weston, part of the family which continues to control ABF.
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Hovis traces its history back even further, having been created in 1890 when Herbert Grime scooped a £25 prize for coming up with the name Hovis, which was derived from the Latin ‘Hominis Vis’ – meaning strength of man.
Persistent inflation, competition from speciality bread producers and shifting consumer habits towards lower-carb diets have combined to impair the bread industry’s financial health in recent decades.
The impact of the war in Ukraine on wheat and flour prices has been among the factors increasing inflationary pressures on bread producers, according to the most recent set of accounts for Hovis filed at Companies House last year.
The overall UK bakery market is said to be worth about £5bn in annual sales, with the equivalent of 11m loaves being sold each day.
The principal obstacle facing a merger of Allied Bakeries, which also owns the Sunblest and Allinson’s bread brands, and Hovis would reside in its consequences for competition in the UK market.
Warburtons, the family-owned business which is the largest bakery group in Britain, is estimated to have a 34% share of the branded wrapped sliced bread sector in the UK, with Hovis on 24% and Allied on 17%, according to industry insiders.
A merger of Hovis and Kingsmill would give the combined group a larger share of that segment of the market, although one source said Warburtons’ overall turnover would remain larger because of the breadth of its product range.
Nevertheless, reducing the number of major supermarket bread suppliers from three to two would be a test of the Competition and Markets Authority’s approach to such industry-reshaping mergers at a time when the watchdog is under intense government scrutiny.
In January, the government removed the CMA chairman, Marcus Bokkerink, as part of a push to reorient Britain’s economic regulators around growth-focused objectives.
An industry insider suggested that a joint venture involving the distribution networks of Hovis and Kingsmill was a possible, although less likely, alternative to a full-blown merger of the companies.
They added that a combined group could benefit from up to £50m of cost savings from such a tie-up.
In its interim results announcement this week, ABF said the performance of Allied Bakeries had continued to struggle.
“Allied Bakeries continues to face a very challenging market,” it said.
“We are evaluating strategic options for Allied Bakeries against this backdrop and we expect to provide an update in [the second half of] 2025.”
In a separate presentation to analysts, ABF described the losses at Allied as unsustainable.
The company does not disclose details of Allied Bakeries’ financial performance.
Allied also owns Speedibake, an own-label bread manufacturer.
Hovis has been owned by Endless, a prominent investor in British businesses, since 2020, having previously been owned by Mr Kipling-maker Premier Foods and the Gores family.
At the time of the most recent takeover, High Wycombe-based Hovis employed about 2,700 people and operated eight bakery sites and its own flour mill.
Hovis’s current chief executive, Jon Jenkins, is a former boss of Allied Milling and Baking.
This weekend, ABF and Endless both declined to comment.
Aston Martin is steering a path towards a twin-pronged pay row with shareholders as it grapples with the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on car manufacturers.
Sky News can reveal that the influential proxy voting adviser ISS is urging investors to vote against both of Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings’ remuneration votes at next week’s annual general meeting.
The pay policy vote, which is binding on the company, has attracted opposition from ISS because it proposes significant increases to potential bonus awards to Adrian Hallmark, the company’s new chief executive.
“Concerns are raised regarding the increased bonus maximums, which are built upon competitively[1]positioned salary levels and do not appear appropriate given the company’s recent performance,” ISS said in a report to clients.
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Aston Martin is also facing a meaningful vote against its pay report for last year – which is on an advisory basis only – because of the salaries awarded to Mr Hallmark and other executive directors.
The company’s shares have nearly halved in the last year, and it now has a market value of little more than £660m.
Despite the ISS recommendation, Aston Martin will win the vote by virtue of chairman Lawrence Stroll’s 33% shareholding.
The luxury car manufacturer has had a torrid time as a public company and now faces the headwinds of President Trump’s tariffs blitz.
This week it said it would limit exports to the US to offset the impact of the policy.
Aston Martin did not respond to a request for comment ahead of next Wednesday’s AGM.
A financial wellbeing platform which counts the alcohol-free beer producer Lucky Saint among its clients has landed a £6m funding injection from a syndicate of well-known investors.
Sky News understands that Mintago, which was founded in 2019, will announce in the coming days that Guinness Ventures has jointly led the Series A round alongside Seed X Liechtenstein and Social Impact Enterprises.
Mintago, which also counts car rental firm Avis and Northumbrian Police among its customers, aims to help employees save and manage their money more effectively.
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A number of the start-up’s current investors, Love Ventures and Truesight Ventures, are also understood to have reinvested as part of the fundraising.
Image: The company, which counts Lucky Saint and Avis among its users, has finalised a Series A funding round
The company was set up by Chieu Cao and Daniel Conti, and claims to offer more salary sacrifice schemes than any other UK provider.
It also provides independent financial advice, a service for finding lost pension pots, retail discounts and GP services.
“We realised that organisations are crying out for the same help we provide their staff,” Mr Conti said.
“The benefits of providing that support impact everyone.
“When a company improves their salary sacrifice benefits engagement, they can save thousands in National Insurance Contributions, but their employees save too, easing the strain on their finances.”
The new capital will be used to develop additional products using artificial intelligence, according to the company.
“Mintago is enabling its customers to become truly people-centric organisations by giving them the tools to support their employees’ financial wellbeing,” Mathias Jaeggi, a partner at Seed X Liechtenstein, said.