Image: Flickr/ Stu Mayhew
A key election campaign weapon for the Conservative Party has been its record on the economy. And one component of this involves attacking Labour’s past performance and future credibility. So, we have had a spate of business leaders lining up to say how well the ‘Conservative-led government’ have done and what a ‘catastrophe’ Labour would be. If the ‘Captains of Industry’, the great ‘wealth creators’, think Labour hasn’t a clue, then surely there must be some truth to this?
First we had Stefano Pessina, acting CEO of Walgreens Boots, using the ‘catastrophe’ word, declaring Labour’s policies were ‘not helpful for business and not helpful for the country’. Then, as election campaigning took off, we had the 103 Business Chiefs letter to the Daily Telegraph. This included many FTSE 250 CEOs and celebrity bosses like Karen Brady, Cameron Mackintosh and Duncan Bannatyne. The letter endorsed Cameron and Osborne’s record as well as the Tory manifesto pledge to cut corporation tax from 28 to 20%. ‘Don’t put the recovery at risk’ by letting Labour in was the end message.
