menu_open
Columnists Actual . Favourites . Archive
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close
Aa Aa Aa
- A +

Labour win brings few hopes or fears to London's financial district

16 0
06.07.2024

Labour's landslide election win shows few signs of unsettling London's financial heartland after the party's lengthy pro-business overtures, though many in finance remain wary they could be targeted to prop up Britain's stretched public finances further down the line.

Under leader Keir Starmer, the Labour Party has assiduously courted the City of London, as the financial district in known, mindful that his plans for boosting economic growth will need a big dose of private capital.

"To realise Labour’s bold ambition to make Britain a clean energy superpower, private sector finance must play a central role," Chris Hayward, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, which administers the capital's financial district, said on Friday.

The City, like hundreds of constituencies across Britain, switched from Conservative to Labour in Thursday's election, in stark contrast to the last election in 2019, when Starmer's predecessor Jeremy Corbyn set out a radical manifesto to increase public investment by raising taxes on companies and top earners, resulting in Labour's worst result since the 1930s.

"The most important change is that there has been a big shift in mindset by Labour towards the City in the past few years," William Wright, managing director of think-tank New Financial told Reuters.

"That is reflected in a strong sense of continuity in the reforms to capital markets and pensions underway," Wright said.

Labour, whose Rachel Reeves, a former economist at the Bank of England, is set to become Britain's finance minister, has backed the Conservative government's post-Brexit Edinburgh Reforms aimed at protecting the City's global competitiveness.

The party has also........

© Japan Today


Get it on Google Play