Why I, a Labour backer, believe you’d be crazy to vote for Ed

TEN years ago, I signed a letter backing Labour in the 2005 Election. Earlier this month I signed a letter backing the Conservatives for this one. Why the conversion? I’m not a tribally political animal. I am someone who runs and starts businesses, but most importantly wants to see our country succeed. I back whatever works.

Five years ago the world was facing catastrophic economic problems. We had stared into the abyss of a complete failure of the international financial system, and managed – via huge State intervention – to avoid total collapse. The recovery of the UK since then has been extraordinary. We have outperformed every other major economy.

When I speak to investors and business people around the world, they see the recent British story as something of a miracle. The jobs figures alone are astounding: 2million more people are in work – a figure representing many, many personal triumphs.

Businesses are starting in record numbers. I really believe David Cameron and George Osborne deserve much of the credit for this incredible turnaround.

But back to ten years ago. In 2005 I supported New Labour because they had ended the tyranny of ‘or’ – the idea that you could only have a strong and growing economy ‘or’ a fair and compassionate society.

New Labour recognised that the one helped pay for the other; healthy tax receipts from business meant more money for schools, hospitals and helping the poorest in our country. Put simply, Tony Blair understood that in order to spend money, you first need to earn money.

I’m genuinely concerned that this view isn’t shared by the current Labour Party – and that business is viewed as the problem, rather than the essential engine that gives politicians the ability to provide that fair and compassionate society. What’s more, they do not seem to understand how businesses work.

Take their energy-freeze policy. This betrays a basic misunderstanding of how markets work. Companies would have elevated prices in anticipation of a freeze – and kept them high despite the recent drop in the price of oil. This is just one clumsy intervention that would end up costing people money.

The current Government has made it very clear that the UK is open for business and endeavours to make business welcome here.

It’s vital, because fundamentally, the business world is driven by confidence and positive sentiment.

However, it is very fragile and hard to nurture, and the mobility of the modern business world means a tech firm can start up as easily in Berlin or Silicon Valley as they can in London, so they’re not going to pick a place which they perceive will make it hard for them to thrive. We need a government that backs business, not one that views us as cartoon capitalists; a necessary evil to bring in money at best; the embodiments of greed at worst.

Because the truth is the vast majority of those working in business are trying to build something good and to employ more people. There is such a thing as turning an honest profit.

The man running a local bakery and employing ten people is a capitalist. The woman starting up a tech firm in her attic is a capitalist.

These people are doing our economy and our society a service. They are not to be stigmatised but backed.

I’m backing the Conservatives for this Election as they’ve shown a determination to stick to the course even when the tide of opinion was turning against them. A couple of years ago, a chorus of voices were urging George Osborne to change direction. He ignored them, the plan paid off, and now those same people are patting him on the back for his resolve.

I like what they’ve done for small businesses too. Everyone’s got to start somewhere. I started selling mobile phones from my flat. And in the age of the start-up, government has to make life easier for people to get going.

I was speaking to an Italian contact recently who told me that anyone starting a small business in Italy gets sucked into a quagmire of bureaucracy, treated like some massive enterprise with their own accounting department. He couldn’t believe that in Britain you could get online and register your company in a few short steps – and that is to the Conservatives’ credit.

Most of all I like the confidence returned to many of our near neighbours.

I’m not a party loyalist and I have never donated money to any party. But on this occasion I really felt I had to speak out as our economic recovery truly hangs in the balance.

For me the choice is clear. And it is not a choice between backing business on the one hand and promoting fairness on the other. There is nothing progressive about attacking business and undermining our economy. If the economy fails, frankly it is not the richest who suffer, it’s the poorest.

It would be a huge and tragic irony if well-meaning people ended up hurting the most deprived in our country. But that is what I fear would happen with a Labour-SNP government – one that is anti-business, anti-aspiration and pro-spending money we haven’t even earned yet.

It comes down to this: we have come a long way in the past five years. Clawing our way out of recession has meant a lot of hard work and sacrifice.

We are rounding the corner and really getting somewhere as a country – and we would be crazy to throw it all away now. that is growing in our economy. What the economist Keynes called ‘animal spirits’; what used to be called the feel-good factor; whatever you call it, that can-do feeling has been returning.

Economic success isn’t decided on high, it is the collective result of millions of people feeling that we are heading in the right direction; willing to take chances and work hard to succeed.

This confidence has returned, beyond doubt – but we must make no mistake, it is a very fragile thing. Indeed, it still hasn’t An explosive intervention by Carphone Warehouse boss who was key Blair ally