- Title: UK Labour's business charm offensive yet to win over some big donors
- Date: 5th June 2024
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JUNE 3, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH BILLIONAIRE, JOHN CAUDWELL, SAYING: "I think people are historically very worried about Labour and feel that the economy and probably themselves can't prosper under a Labour government. I don't necessarily buy into that, I think, you know, with the right leadership, Labour could be the r
- Embargoed: 19th June 2024 12:33
- Keywords: John Caudwell Keir Starmer Rishi Sunak UK election donor
- Location: LONDON, REDCAR, LIVERPOOL AND MEDWAY ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM AND BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
- City: LONDON, REDCAR, LIVERPOOL AND MEDWAY ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM AND BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
- Country: UK
- Topics: Europe,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA003807004062024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Billionaire John Caudwell, one of the governing Conservative Party's biggest donors before Britain's last national election in 2019, says he no longer wants to back a party that he feels wasted 14 years in power.
But he's not quite ready to donate to Labour.
With a general election due early next month, Caudwell, who made nearly 1.5 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) in 2006 when he sold his mobile phone retailer Phones 4u, still feels he doesn't know enough about the centre-left opposition party's plans.
With the race on to raise campaign funding after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak shocked politicians and big business by calling an early election on July 4, both the Conservatives and Labour are redoubling efforts to court donors.
Labour's leader, Keir Starmer, a former public prosecutor, has charted a centrist course since he took over in 2020, moving the party away from a leftist agenda that saw it lose heavily at the previous election. Polls now suggest that Labour will sweep to victory in July.
But some wealthy donors, like Caudwell, are remaining on the sidelines, unconvinced the party has demonstrated it has the policy solutions to revive Britain's flagging economic growth, modernise its infrastructure and protect public services from attrition.
"Keir Starmer's Labour Party is untested ... and that's a risk," Caudwell said at his marble-floored mansion in London's luxurious Mayfair district. "I'd like to see more concrete stuff from Keir and the potential cabinet, in terms of what's going to happen when they get in power."
"What we do know is the Tories have not done us very well over the last 14 years," Cauldwell told Reuters in an interview, referring to the governing Conservatives. "We just don't know whether Labour would do better."
That's a sentiment shared by many voters. A survey by pollster YouGov in April showed that 50% of respondents were unclear what Labour under Starmer stands for.
Traditionally, the left-leaning party received the bulk of its funding from Britain's union movement.
According to a Reuters' analysis of data from Britain's electoral commission, Starmer has received the second-highest level of private donations for the Labour Party in a single election cycle - behind Labour's term in power in 2005-2010 under former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Private donations aside, the remainder of Labour's money comes from a mix of trade unions, public funds and other sources - although its financial reliance on the unions is in decline.
Labour received just 23.9 million pounds from trade unions under Starmer, compared with more than 50 million pounds under both his predecessor, the left-wing veteran Jeremy Corbyn, and the prior party leader, Ed Miliband.
The Conservatives are still winning the funding race, taking 104.3 million pounds compared with Labour's 90.2 million in the period since Starmer became leader - something not lost on the opposition party, which regularly sends out email requests for funds, often twice a day.
Starmer, since becoming Labour leader in 2020, has courted company owners, investors and bankers, aware that the party enjoyed its greatest electoral success in modern times under the pro-business leadership of Blair.
Many businesses, in turn, have clamoured to get access to a team opinion polls say will be the next British government.
Last year's business forum at Labour's annual conference in October had 200 attendees, with more than 180 on the waiting list. The previous one attracted just 130 guests, according to a Labour official.
For Caudwell, that would mean offering tax breaks to green companies developing cutting-edge environmental technologies that could turn Britain into a leader in the sector - something he doubts whether Labour could do, politically.
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