Bosses must stand up to Corbyn
Business leaders are utterly terrified of a Corbyn government. One chief executive of a household name retailer i met last week was visibly shaken at the prospect. Bosses in all sectors from investment banks to manufacturers are scared stiff – much more so than they are about Brexit.
Yet despite the strength of their feelings, most are reluctant to speak out in public. in the case of consumer businesses they are fearful of a backlash in the form of boycotts that could damage their share price.
They want to steer clear of politics and leave it to business lobby groups and trade associations. The problem with that is the lobby groups are too mealy-mouthed.
Take the CBi’s statement after the two main parties set out their spending plans. in the same breath, it praised Labour’s ambition to wipe out regional inequality and to decarbonise the economy alongside the Conservatives’ fiscal rules that would allow us to modernise our infrastructure.
The CBi styles itself as the voice of business but gave no sense of how many of its members feel. The faux-balance in the statement, the idea there is any equivalence between the Labour and Tory visions for the economy is absurd.
no mention here of the orgy of public spending being proposed by shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. He is conjuring up images of a workers’ paradise, though the flip side is that it would be a nightmare for entrepreneurs and anyone trying to manage a business.
McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn are hostile to aspiration. They heap contempt on billionaires such as sir Jim Ratcliffe. His mooted move to Monaco may be questionable but his achievement in rising from council house roots to be an employer of thousands is not.
under Labour, chunks of companies’ share capital would be seized and swathes of the stock market nationalised.
The crude suggestion that ‘the rich’ will pay for all this through higher taxes is naïve at best. Genuine tycoons will leave the country and the supposedly wealthy people, who are in fact just middle class, will soon be a great deal poorer.
CORBYN and McDonnell need to be told that wrecking the economy is unlikely to lead to higher tax revenues. Far from offering a vision for a new economy, a Labour victory would lead to a further huge fall in the pound, driving up prices in shops; and plunging share prices, hurting people’s pensions and savings.
Yet business leaders and the organisations representing firms prefer to remain silent, or make only anodyne statements.
This isn’t an easy issue. There is an argument that when they do speak out, it is counterproductive.
it’s different in the us, where two businessmen, Donald Trump and Michael
Bloomberg, are squaring off. starbucks founder Howard schultz – who has spoken out against Trump – was, until he recently decided not to run, seen as another possible opponent to the President.
in this country, top business people like M&s chairman Archie norman who go into politics are a rarity. This may explain why the Conservatives have failed to make a convincing case for business and capitalism as a force for good.
The Tories also want to spend. Their argument is that with interest rates low, it is a good time to invest in infrastructure.
There is a risk that the focus on balancing the books valued so highly by Mrs Thatcher, who likened herself to a housewife keeping a family budget, has been too easily cast aside. But this is a lesser concern compared with the overturn of capitalism Corbyn and McDonnell yearn for.
in the face of this, chief executives cannot pretend they are politically neutral or above the fray. They are responsible for the livelihoods of millions of people in the wealthcreating private sector of the economy. This is not good enough when the entire foundation of our prosperity is under attack.
Failing to speak out, choosing not to defend their employees and customers, looks a lot like dereliction of duty.