General Election 2015: AA CFO Martin Clarke wants honesty on NHS spending and an end to non-dom tax breaks April 20, 2015 ELECTION COUNTDOWN: 16 DAYS TO GO Every day until the final week of the election campaign, we ask a business leader to say what policies would entice them to vote for a particular party. MARTIN CLARKE: CFO, AA ■ Had the courage to admit that throwing money at the NHS is not [...]
Ed Davey forces Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman to sell off North Sea gasfields April 20, 2015 Energy secretary Ed Davey has given the Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman six months to sell off the North Sea gas fields. Davey notified Fridman’s LetterOne company of the decision yesterday, informing it that if the sale did not occur by the deadline he had set, the firm’s licenses in the North Sea would be revoked. [...]
British Chambers of Commerce blasts major political parties for irresponsible election campaigning April 20, 2015 A leading business group has today accused the largest political parties of acting irresponsibly in the run-up to the General Election. In an open letter sent to the leaders of the main parties, British Chambers of Commerce Director General John Longworth said politicians are abandoning long-term interests in favour of short-term political point-scoring. “On the [...]
Chuka Umunna says corporate boardrooms need more diversity April 20, 2015 Chuka Umunna would aim for Britain’s boardrooms to have at least 14 per cent BME members if Labour win the General Election, “We have got to go further and look at not just gender diversity but ethnic diversity in British business leadership,” the shadow business secretary told the Evening Standard yesterday. Over half of the UK’s [...]
General Election 2015: Ed Miliband gives me the heebie jeebies, Nigel Farage models himself on Boycie and Nicola Sturgeon has “thin lips” – here are the best reactions to the party manifesto launches April 20, 2015 Voters have had some interesting reactions to the manifesto launches of the last week – and not in the way you might expect. They collectively had only “the haziest recollection” of the details – despite them dominating the news all week. As part of the weekly poll update for Ashcroft National Polls, they had [...]
SNP manifesto: Nicola Sturgeon promises Scottish veto on Brexit, end to austerity and higher taxes April 20, 2015 Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to end austerity economics at the SNP's manifesto launch at a rock climbing centre in Edinburgh. Sturgeon said that under no circumstances would the SNP do a deal with the Tories in the event of a hung parliament but would act to embolden a minority Labour government and shift policy to [...]
General Election 2015: David Cameron challenges SNP over devolution with the “Carlisle Principle” April 20, 2015 David Cameron has thrown down the gauntlet to the SNP by promising to conduct yearly reviews of devolution to ensure that decisions made in Holyrood do not result in the rest of the UK losing out. The powers of the Scottish parliament "can now have a big impact on your job, your income, and investment [...]
Labour tells SNP, vote us down if you dare: Ed Balls slams claims of post-General Election deal with Scottish Nationalists April 20, 2015 Shadow chancellor Ed Balls insisted yesterday that the Scottish National Party (SNP) will have no involvement in his first Budget, should Labour be the largest party after May’s election yet fail to have a majority of MPs. Balls said that there would be an “absolute 100 per cent total firewall” between the SNP and a [...]
General Election 2015: Decoded co-CEO Kathryn Parsons wants investment in the knowledge economy April 20, 2015 ELECTION COUNTDOWN: 17 DAYS TO GO Every day until the final week of the election campaign, we ask a business leader to say what policies would entice them to vote for a particular party. KATHRYN PARSONS: CO-CEO, DECODED There was sufficient investment in the knowledge economy. The UK’s digital economy is predicted to [...]
General Election 2015: Labour’s Ed Balls refuses to rule out corporation tax rise April 19, 2015 Ed Balls has refused to rule out a rise in corporation tax if Labour wins the general election in three weeks’ time. The Labour shadow chancellor refused to rule out a further increase in corporation tax to the one per cent already pledged by the party when questioned on Sky News’ Murnaghan show. The current [...]