The Labour reaction today to the Telegraph’s high-volume splash on 100 business leaders warning about the dangers of a Labour government has largely been along the lines of ‘how interesting, and tomorrow will you tell us about the Pope’s theology?’ The coverage of the letter, which has the mark of Tory co-chair Lord Feldman, has certainly created a rather stark contrast to the party’s own announcement that it will give workers on zero hours contracts a legal right to request proper hours after 12 weeks. Labour likes this contrast.
The letter says:
Dear Sirs,
We run some of the leading businesses in the UK. We believe this Conservative-led Government has been good for business and has pursued policies which have supported investment and job creation.
David Cameron and George Osborne’s flagship policy of progressively lowering Corporation Tax to 20% has been very important in showing the UK is open for business. It has been a key part of their economic plan.
The result is that Britain grew faster than any other major economy last year and businesses like ours have created over 1.85m new jobs.
We believe a change in course will threaten jobs and deter investment. This would send a negative message about Britain and put the recovery at risk.
Should Labour dismiss this? It was the sort of tactic that Better Together used in the Scottish independence referendum. And though the list contains Tory donors and peers, it also contains the heads of brands that the British public know and trust and use every day. The only positive for the party is that those brands aren’t also on the front page too, and instead they are represented by a list of names that not everyone will recognise.
It is also not great timing following the party’s ‘business manifesto’ launch and its own letter from business chiefs about the dangers of an EU referendum (which ended up in a bit of a row about whether or not the party had secured their consent for their names to be used).
It will be interesting to see whether the party goes to war with those on the list in the way it did with Stefano Pessina. Fighting 100 businesspeople is of course more difficult, but Labour seems to be in a rather defiant mood this morning.
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