- Lord Spencer, once party treasurer, insisted Tories ‘a better choice than Labour’
Rishi Sunak‘s election campaign received a £250,000 boost from a top donor who has urged the City to rally behind the Conservatives.
Lord Spencer, a billionaire who once served as Tory Party treasurer, said he wanted to ‘encourage’ his business contacts to stick with the current government.
Describing the Conservatives as ‘a better choice than Labour’, he said the Prime Minister deserved credit for improving the economy.
‘The economy is like a supertanker, it takes time to turn around but it is turning around and Rishi does deserve some credit for that,’ he said.
‘I understand that there’s a lot of frustration with the Conservative Party after 14 years in power and there’s a feeling that it’s the other side’s turn, but those people who are thinking of voting Labour be careful what you wish for and be very careful of what you expect.’
Lord Spencer (pictured, in 2019), a billionaire who once served as Tory Party treasurer, said he wanted to ‘encourage’ his business contacts to stick with the current government
Describing the Conservatives as ‘a better choice than Labour’, he said the Prime Minister deserved credit for improving the economy
Lord Spencer, who made his fortune co-founding Intercapital Brokers, was a major donor to Boris Johnson‘s successful leadership campaign.
He warned that Labour ‘may talk the talk on promoting growth, but will they actually walk the walk? I am profoundly sceptical’.
He said Sir Keir Starmer is ‘not a Tony Blair’, and he fears that this could be the ‘most Left-wing [Labour] administration this country has ever had’.
‘They’ve done a very good job at not frightening the electorate by representing that they’re very moderate and centrist,’ he said.
But others, such as former Tory adviser Iain Anderson, who is now advising Labour, said people are ‘crying out for stability and economic competence and just want more predictability to be able to invest’.
He said businesses are feeling hopeful that they can ‘move on, turn a page – the current regime is exhausted’.
His comments are a blow to Labour, which has been courting business in a bid to convince them the party is now more trustworthy than the Tories on the economy.
Elsewhere, the Sunday Times reported that Tory donors have privately launched a fresh bid to water down the party’s non-dom policy.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt spiked the opposition’s guns by announcing at the Budget earlier this year that he would scrap the non-dom status.
Along with extending the windfall tax on oil and gas companies, the policy had been earmarked by Labour to fund additional NHS appointments and free breakfast clubs for all primary school pupils.
Lord Spencer, who made his fortune co-founding Intercapital Brokers, was a major donor to Boris Johnson ‘s successful leadership campaign (pictured: Johnson during the 2019 campaign)
Elsewhere, the Sunday Times reported that Tory donors have privately launched a fresh bid to water down the party’s non-dom policy. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt spiked the opposition’s guns by announcing at the Budget earlier this year that he would scrap the non-dom status
The policy faced an immediate backlash from business figures and some MPs, many of whom pointed to Mr Hunt’s own criticism of the idea in 2022.
He said at the time that scrapping non-doms would be the ‘wrong thing’ to do, adding: ‘These are foreigners who could live easily in Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain. They all have these schemes. All things being equal, I would rather they stayed here and spent their money here.’
This election will be the most expensive ever after new rules adopted last year pushed the spending cap for parties to £35m, up from around £19.5m previously.