General election 2024: Businesses have a long wish-list from parties
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
Business
General election 2024: ‘Conspiracy of silence’ from Tories and Labour over tax plans in manifestos, thinktank IFS says
Voters have been left in the dark over how the major parties will be able to fund their spending commitments, a respected thinktank has said, offering just “thin gruel”.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) took further aim at what it described as a “conspiracy of silence” from both the Conservatives and Labour on how they could meet the challenges they identify, such as reducing NHS waiting lists.
Launching its report on the crucial documents, IFS director Paul Johnson warned that spending on many public services would likely need to be cut over the next parliament unless government debt was to rise or taxes increased further.
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He pointed to pressure from a 60-year high in government debt levels at a time of a near-record tax burden.
Much of the blame for this was a £50bn a year increase in debt interest spending relative to forecasts, he explained, and a growing welfare budget in the wake of the COVID pandemic and cost of living crisis that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Labour manifesto versus the rest
“We have rising health spending, a defence budget which for the first time in decades will likely grow rather than shrink, and the reality of demographic change and the need to transition to net zero,” Mr Johnson said.
“Add in low growth and the after-effects of the pandemic and energy price crisis and you have a toxic mix indeed when it comes to the public finances.”
“These raw facts are largely ignored by the two main parties in their manifestos”, he declared, describing the information presented to voters as a “knowledge vacuum”.
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The main verdict on tax
“In line with their unwillingness to face up to the real challenges, neither main party makes any serious new proposals to increase taxes”, Mr Johnson said.
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What is in the Conservative Party manifesto?
“Consistent with their conspiracy of silence, both are keeping entirely silent about their commitment to a £10bn a year tax rise through a further three years of freezes to personal tax allowances and thresholds.
“Both have tied their hands on income tax, NICs, VAT and corporation tax. The Conservatives have a long list of other tax rises, and reforms, that they wouldn’t do. Labour have ruled out more tax options since the publication of the manifestos.
“Taken at face value, Labour’s promise of no tax increases on working people” rules out essentially all tax rises. There is no tax paid exclusively by those who don’t work. Who knows what this pledge is really supposed to mean,” he concluded.
What about the other parties?
The IFS said the Liberal Democrats had bigger tax and spend policies than Labour or the Conservatives.
It also determined that Reform UK and the Greens offered much bigger numbers but declared that what they propose is “wholly unattainable”, helping to “poison the entire political debate”.
Mr Johnson concluded: “The choices in front of us are hard. High taxes, high debt, struggling public services, make them so.
“Pressures from health, defence, welfare, ageing will not make them easier. That is not a reason to hide the choices or to duck them. Quite the reverse. Yet hidden and ducked they have been.”
A pack of trade and private equity suitors are circling Evri, one of Britain’s biggest parcel delivery companies.
Sky News has learnt that Apollo Global Management and Platinum Equity are among the parties which have lodged initial offers for Evri, which is reportedly worth around £2bn.
City sources said that a number of strategic bidders were also participating in the auction, which is being run by bankers at Rothschild.
Evri, which changed its name from Hermes in 2022, uses more than 20,000 couriers and has a network of over 14,000 ParcelShops and lockers.
Pic: PA
It is used by a large number of prominent retailers as well as the online platforms Etsy and Vinted.
The company has been owned by Advent International, another private equity group, since 2020, when it bought it from German mail order company Otto.
It has a near-20pc share of the UK market, delivering more than 700m parcels annually.
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The auction of Evri comes as Parcelforce’s parent, the Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services, is in the process of being taken private.
On Friday, Sky News revealed that Yodel, which narrowly averted collapse this year, was raising tens of millions of pounds to strengthen its balance sheet.
Advent declined to comment, while neither Apollo nor Platinum responded to a request for comment.
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