UK: Opposition Labour Party working to gain support from business sector

Public opinion polls as of late showed the United Kingdom’s growing support toward the opposition Labour Party as lawmakers gear up for the 2024 national elections. A growing number of business leaders, investors, and bankers have been changing affiliations in their donations to Labour from the governing Conservative Party.

Speaking to Reuters Friday last week, businessman Gareth Quarry, who chairs the LVDY Health and Wellbeing firm, said that after decades of donating to the Conservative Party, he intends to start donating to Labour. Quarry cited that the Conservative Party has committed what he described as a “litany of misdemeanours” that tarnished the UK’s reputation of financial stability.

Quarry said that a lot of his peers are beginning to sway towards Labour, which now appears to have taken the governing party’s image of being “the party of business.” Quarry added that this belief was reinforced by meetings with the party’s lawmakers and policy chiefs led by Labour leader Keir Starmer.

“I realized that in Labour we have a left-of-centre party that is about making society fairer and is adamantly pro-business – not just lip service but truly working with business,” said Quarry.

Many business leaders have long favored Conservatives in the belief that the party could create flexible working conditions and consumer confidence needed to boost the country’s economy. However, many business leaders have switched sides following the party’s support for leaving the European Union.

Senior Labour Party officials have now sought to gain support from the business sector. Executives from banks, investment groups, and venture capital companies told Reuters that they met with Labour figures led by Rachel Reeves, the party’s finance policy chief, who is also a former Bank of England economist. The increased attention has also led to an increase in donations made to the opposition party, which is predicted to take power following the 2024 elections.

Earlier this month, Starmer pledged that the Labour Party would work together with businesses to boost economic growth and criticized the Conservative Party’s “sticking plaster politics.”

“I am here to say that Labour is ready, is ready to partner with you because we’re not just a pro-business party, we are a party proud to be pro-business,” said Starmer.