General Election 2015: Mastercard’s Ann Cairns wants greater devolution and more technological innovation April 21, 2015 ELECTION COUNTDOWN: 15 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. ANN CAIRNS: PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL MARKETS, MASTERCARD ■ Reduce reliance on cash to drive economic growth – Cash costs [...]
General Election 2015: Nick Clegg’s tax pledge to deter second homes April 21, 2015 Second homeowners could see their tax bills multiply if the Liberal Democrats return to government after the General Election. The Lib Dems want to give local authorities new powers to charge up to 200 per cent council tax on second homes, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said in a speech in the south west of England [...]
General Election 2015: Bookie claims Ed Miliband will (still) be in Number 10 when Hillary Clinton becomes US President April 21, 2015 This bookie is offering odds of 1/1 for Hillary Clinton to be US President. Not only that, Betway definitely expects Ed Miliband to be in 10 Downing Street when she is inaugurated, offering 3/1 odds that he'll be Prime Minister when she's sworn in on January 20, 2017 – despite fears that a hung parliament [...]
Brexit: City workers would vote to stay in the EU despite Brussels hostility to financial services April 21, 2015 The vast majority of finance executives working in the City of London would vote to stay in the EU despite believing Brussels is actively hostile toward the financial services industry. The Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI) found that 73 per cent of City executives and economists in the City's financial industry would [...]
John Major warns Scottish National Party would threaten Labour government with “political blackmail” April 21, 2015 Former Prime Minister John Major has warned that a Labour-SNP deal after the General Election would be a "recipe for mayhem." The last Conservative to lead a majority Tory government will deliver a speech in the Midlands on Tuesday spelling out the dangers to the country of an Ed Miliband government propped up by the [...]
David Cameron: Labour-SNP is a match made in hell April 20, 2015 A Labour-SNP alliance would be “a match made in hell” for the UK economy, Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday. In a speech at a train factory in Crewe, Cameron said Labour leader Ed Miliband would bring the economy “to a grinding halt” if he did a deal with Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon. “Make [...]
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 [...]