London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Jul 22, 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
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×