Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis has thrown his weight behind Keir Starmer with a blistering tirade against Tory chaos.
Mr Paphitis, who voted Conservative in 2019, blasted ministers for the damage they unleashed on British businesses. He lashed out at infighting and Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, saying they “forgot what their job was”.
He joined Labour leader Mr Starmer in Basingstoke, where bar owner Kevin Nelson told them: “That budget just destroyed everything.” Mr Nelson, 62, who was forced to take on a second job less than three years after setting up the Gabardine Bar, told Mr Starmer: “I believe you can do better.” He said customers who used to come in two or three times a month were now visiting just once, sending his takings plummeting.
Mr Paphitis said he’d waited until seeing the Labour manifesto before deciding whether to back Mr Starmer, but said: “The manifesto promises absolutely fit in line with my visions of having a stable business environment and end the chaos that we’ve had to live in.”
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Describing the Tories he said: “I gave them a lot of benefits of the doubt.” He went on: “The Tories became the party of ripping each other apart and forgot about the reason they exist.
“They forgot what their main job was, and that’s to run the country in a positive way. We all want some stability, and end of the chaos and some growth.”
And he went on: “There’s nothing in the Tory party manifesto that indicates that they’re remotely going towards that. In fact, it’s totally the opposite. There is faction after faction going out there, briefing the press, talking about their leader. If you vote Sunak and the Tories get in, I’m not sure you’d even get Sunak. You might get Truss again, or Boris.”
And he told The Mirror: “You can fool the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” Mr Starmer vowed to boost British high streets if he becomes PM.
Mr Nelson told The Mirror that he feels let down by the Government. He said: “Everyone’s fed up, really. But the way things are going, and we do need a change. We need a new direction.”
Describing the challenges he’s faced, Mr Nelson, who runs the bar with partner Fran, said: “At the beginning we were just coming out of Covid and we thought people would want to start coming out again, which they did.
“Then it tailed off, energy prices killed a lot of it. And then after that it was the dreadful budget that increased interest rates, it changed everything.”
Mr Starmer said: “Almost every business I talk to, whether it’s live sciences or hospitality or retail, they will always say the energy bills are absolutely giving us real difficulties here.”