London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 17, 2025

Britain's Labour Party works to become 'the party of business'

Britain's Labour Party works to become 'the party of business'

After decades funding Britain's governing Conservatives, businessman Gareth Quarry has switched allegiance and started donating to the opposition Labour Party in the belief that it offers more certainty and stability.

The 63-year-old entrepreneur abandoned the Conservatives after what he called "a litany of misdemeanours" that destroyed Britain's centuries-old reputation for financial stability.

Quarry is one of a growing number of investors, company executives and bankers turning to Labour, which has a strong lead in opinion polls over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives before a national election expected in 2024.

"A lot of us are finding our way to Labour," Quarry, who made his millions from two legal recruitment companies and now heads a company that makes health supplements, told Reuters.

His view that Labour has taken the Conservatives' mantle as the "party of business" has been strengthened by meetings with Labour lawmakers and policy chiefs under leader Keir Starmer.

"I realised that in Labour we have a left-of-centre party that is about making society fairer and is adamantly pro-working with business - not just (paying) lip service but truly working with business," said Quarry, chair of LVDY Health and Wellbeing.

For years, company owners and business executives sided with the Conservatives, believing that the party of Margaret Thatcher was most likely to create the flexible working conditions and consumer confidence that is needed to grow the economy.

But for many that relationship was shattered by the party's support for Brexit and its decision to take Britain out of Europe's single market, the world's biggest trading bloc.

Aware that Labour enjoyed its greatest electoral success in modern times under the pro-business leadership of Tony Blair, senior party officials have set out to woo business people.

Executives at banks, investment groups and venture capital firms told Reuters they have met leading Labour figures led by Rachel Reeves, the party's finance policy chief and a former Bank of England economist.

"They're asking a lot of questions," one large international investor in Britain said.

Several sources in the finance industry said Labour, which also courted business leaders at its annual conference and at a recent sell-out London summit, wanted to better use the sector to snap the country out of years of stagnant economic growth.



GROWING DONATIONS
The heightened attention has helped drive up donations to a party that has long been backed by funds from trade unions.

In the three months to September, Labour received 4.8 million pounds ($5.8 million), including contributions from the unions, to the Conservatives' just over 3 million pounds, according to the electoral commission. That compares with 5.4 million to the Conservatives and 3.8 million to Labour in the earlier quarter.

Some Conservative lawmakers dismiss the data as little more than an aberration, triggered by a leadership crisis this summer in which the party ousted first Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss in a matter of weeks.

Individual Conservative groups, they say, are still doing well. The Conservative Party's headquarters did not respond to a request for comment.

Several Conservatives said they hoped to win back business support with the appointment of Sunak, the country's former finance minister and Goldman Sachs analyst who created the furlough scheme to support jobs during COVID-19 lockdowns.

But many business leaders are still seething after Johnson reportedly used an expletive when asked as foreign minister about business fears over Brexit, and after Truss sent the cost of borrowing soaring with plans for unfunded cuts.

Quarry, who as a donor once attended dinner parties with former prime minister David Cameron, withdrew his support over Johnson and has since become a Labour member and donated 50,000 pounds this year, a sum matched by his wife.

Labour said donors could see the party was "serious about getting into government and building a fairer, greener, more dynamic Britain". But it is taking nothing for granted.

The shadow cabinet team sticks to strict messaging on public spending to jettison any lingering doubts about its stewardship of the nation's finances, and they are navigating a fine line on strikes after tens of thousands of workers walked out from jobs on the railways, in the health service and at airports.

Starmer says he supports the right to industrial action but has refused to back the current walkouts, instead blaming the government for failing to prevent the action - a strategy one Conservative insider described as "clever".

But, for several business people, the Labour Party offers concrete change, albeit perhaps with the sobering suggestion that the wealthy might have to shoulder more of the tax burden.

Quarry points to Labour's plans to improve the Conservative's much maligned apprenticeship levy and a pledge to cut, and eventually scrap, business rates by replacing them with a new business tax system.

In return they want companies to invest more.

"That's something I've signed up to, but that's on the back of (the fact that) I am absolutely convinced that they are going to provide me with an environment that is certain, that is predictable, that encourages investment," Quarry said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
×