Ed Miliband would be a disaster for British business
THE efforts by the late Labour leader John Smith to woo businesses through a series of working lunches were nicknamed his “prawn cocktail offensive”. But all Ed Miliband had to offer on Monday morning when he addressed businessmen at Bloomberg’s headquarters was shrivelled sprats.
Few turned up and those who did were complaining that comments they had made years ago about an EU referendum had been seized upon for a Labour campaign advert that mistakenly gave the impression they favoured a Labour victory.
Siemens and Kellogg’s UK emphasised that they were taking a politically neutral position in the election.
Labour’s advert in the Financial Times, trying to stoke business fears about an EU referendum, is a symptom of desperation from a party which has very few friends in business. That is hardly surprising given that Ed Miliband has lost no opportunity over the past few years trying to portray businessmen as a bunch of vultures who feed on the efforts of their workers and avoid taxes.
In 2011 Miliband famously tried to divide businesses into “producers” and “predators”. He has threatened businesses with government- imposed price freezes and profit caps and promised to reverse the latest reduction in corporation tax.
Business- bashing may go down well among Labour’s traditional supporters in the trade unions but Miliband is indulging in it without thought to the consequences for the businesses who create jobs and generate the wealth which pays for public services.
HAVING last week promised to cap the profits of private companies who do work for the NHS, Miliband yesterday had to hurriedly backtrack when the pharmaceutical companies, who supply huge quantities of life- saving drugs to hospitals and surgeries, warned that they might in future be unable to supply the NHS. The cap will not now apply to them.
Of course there are businesses which have not helped themselves. But multinationals that have used clever accounting techniques to shift their profits to tax havens