Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer laughs with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves during the party's annual conference in Liverpool last year Photo: REUTERS/PHIL NOBLE < p >Half of business leaders said they would prefer a Labor government under Sir Keir Starmer to a Conservative government led by Rishi Sunak.
An Opinium poll found that a quarter of business leaders who voted for the Tories in the general election Sir Keir's party now had the backing of the 2019 election.
The results come as the Labor Party prepares to host a major business event this week, with 600 executives, investors and ambassadors gathering for a conference in London on Thursday. This indicates that many bosses expect the party to form the next government.
< p>The Labor Party commissioned Opinium to conduct an online survey of 500 business leaders and senior executives, with respondents spread across micro, small, medium and large businesses.
In the sample, 44 percent said that supported the Tories in the 2019 election, compared with 27 per cent who supported the Labor Party.
However, when asked what outcome they preferred in the upcoming general election, the position changed: 49 percent preferred a “Labour government led by Keir Starmer” compared to 34 percent who wanted a “Conservative government led by Rishi Sunak.”< /p>
Of the 220 business leaders who backed In 2019, 55 Conservatives (25 per cent) said they now want Labor to win.
“Loss of confidence”
The survey was similar when business leaders were asked about Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves. 48 per cent said they would trust Ms Reeves more to manage the economy, compared with 34 per cent who chose Mr Hunt.
The poll found 69 per cent agreed with the statement that Tories “lost the trust of the business community,” compared with 25 percent who disagreed. Two thirds (66 per cent) also agreed that the Tories had «run out of ideas», compared with 28 per cent who disagreed.
Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the results showed «businesses have given up». on the Conservative Party» and «lost faith in them.»
«Business wants stability more than anything else,» he said. «I think we're in a really unusual position: I think business is looking to a change of government for more stability than staying in the current one.»
On Thursday, the Labor Party will hold a conference of 400 business leaders and more 200 international investors and ambassadors.
The conference is three times the size of a similar business event held by the Labor Party last year, with each ticket costing nearly £1,000 excluding VAT, and the event will sell out in just four hours.
High profile Participants include British Chambers of Commerce President Baroness Lane-Fox, Google UK Managing Director Debbie Weinstein and Siemens UK and Ireland CEO Carl Ennis.
Mr Reynolds was in Switzerland earlier this month where Ms Reeves met world business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
He said he took the opportunity to ask international companies whether they would «consider listing in the UK».
He said: «If there's a place I need to go to to get more business investment, more inward investment into the UK, to tell people what a Labor government would mean for them if they're interested, I'm happy be in this room.»
Свежие комментарии