Labour 'furiously' pro-business

Labour MPs have insisted their party is “furiously” pro-business in a concerted fight back after days of backlash against Ed Miliband.

Several big players including shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt and shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint sought to play down the recent row over their leader’s high-profile spat with members of the business community.

Last week, Mr Miliband dismissed Boots chief executive Stefano Pessina as a Monaco-based tax avoider whose advice would not be welcomed by voters, which in turn led to accusations the party is anti-business.

Mr Pessina had warned of a potential “catastrophe” for the country if Labour wins in May.

But Mr Hunt told BBC 1′s Andrew Marr Show that Labour was on the side of Britain’s business people and a “furiously, passionately, aggressively pro-business party”.

He said: “I’m enormously enthusiastic about business men and women making money, about delivering shareholder return, about making profit not least because that will help to support the Sure Start children’s centres and the schools.

“We have heard from some business people. We have got five million great businesses working really hard across Great Britain, making money as I say and Labour is on their side.

“What is the problem our economy faces? It is a productivity challenge and that means the state has to play its role alongside business.

“What is the challenge for our business as well? It is markets. Only the Labour Party is committed to ensuring we have got a successful UK working in Europe delivering those markets for modern British business.

“So we are a furiously, passionately, aggressively pro-business party.”

Ms Flint told Sky News’ Murnaghan that not a single FTSE 100 company had come out for Labour in 1997.

And shadow cabinet office minister Jonathan Ashworth told BBC 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics the Labour Party was “ferociously” pro-business.

He said: “The Labour Party is a pro-business party. We want to see businesses flourish, we want to see businesses succeed.

“When you look at the policies of the Labour Party that we have already outlined and will be outlining in our manifesto in the next few weeks, I think you will see a very rich pro-business agenda.”

He also said a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union – promised by the Conservatives before the end of 2017 – was the “last thing” businesses needed because of the uncertainty it would lead to.

But David Cameron accused Labour of having “a sneering hatred of business”.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said the Government had transformed the UK from recession to a “Great Revival”, “by putting enterprise at the heart of our long-term economic plan to turn Britain around”.

On business chiefs’ criticism of Labour, the Prime Minister added: “This chaos betrays something much deeper about Ed Miliband and Labour – something that should strike fear in every family in the country: they have a sneering hatred of business.

“It was Ed Miliband, in one of his first major speeches as Labour leader, who took it upon himself to dub some businesses as ‘predators’. It was Ed Balls who said that one of the first things he would do as chancellor would be to slap higher corporation tax on some of our biggest employers.

“As new analysis today shows, this policy alone could cost 96,400 jobs. That statistic demolishes one of their economic arguments; they say they would deal with the deficit by growing the economy.”

Chancellor George Osborne echoed this sentiment on Marr, claiming the Labour leader was not fit for office.

He added: “He does not think through the consequences of his anti-business, anti-enterprise and anti-our partners abroad policies.”

The sustained attacks from business leaders and Tory politicians appear to have done nothing to dent Labour’s popularity, however, as the party has maintained a slim poll lead.

One for the Observer showed Mr Miliband remained significantly less well regarded than Mr Cameron – with a satisfaction score of minus 26 to the Prime Minister’s minus five.

But it put the Opposition up one point from a fortnight ago on 34%, two ahead of the Conservatives, unchanged on 32%.

Ukip dropped three points to 15% in the Opinium research while the Greens and the Liberal Democrats both moved up two points to 8% and 7% respectively.

The reported promise of full co-operation from Tony Blair during the election campaign may help calm nerves in the business sector further.

His office told the same newspaper he “will do whatever the party wants” to help secure victory in May.

Furthermore, two of his close New Labour allies – Lord Mandelson and Alastair Campbell – yesterday countered claims that they “took soundings” from a potential replacement leader at the height of a plot to depose Mr Miliband.

Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/blair-help-labour-campaign-002842007.html

Labour 'furiously' pro-business