Labour could lose business vote, CBI chief warns

Labour could lose business vote, CBI chief warns

	Published : Fri, 25 Nov 2005 17:05 By : Phil Bateman Print this Story

LONDON: The government is fast losing the confidence of the British business community because of the inept way in which ministers dealt with issues like energy, tax and pensions, CBI leader Sir Digby Jones said.

The director general of the CBI pointed out several blunders made by ministers since Labour was voted to power in 1997. To begin with, he said business leaders couldn’t understand why the government was giving £10 million of taxpayers' money to help modernise trade unions when only 17 percent of the private sector workforce was unionised. The rest 83 percent find the expenditure unjustified and “irrelevant”.

Sir Digby also blasted the government for giving in so easily to unions who threatened to strike with millions of workers over raising the retirement age from 60 to 65. He called on industry minister Allan Johnson and chancellor Gordon Brown to reconsider its decision and termed the government’s surrender as “a scandal and a disgrace”.

Labour, he said, was responsible for letting the pensions problem blow up into a full blown crisis with a £6bn pensions deficit. He reminded that people were aware of how taxes have increased since Labour came to power. At the time the government took £34.80 of every £100 income which will increase to £38.50 by the year 2007-08. Under Labour’s rule, Britain is fast losing its goodwill with the business community, especially by being unable to tackle issues such as high energy costs and not improving the quality of health services and transport systems.

Top bosses openly expressed their displeasure with the government at the twice-a-week meetings with the CBI chief who urged ministers to address the problems of the industry with some concrete steps. “Rhetoric will not be enough” he warned, else they could lose the business community’s vote in the next election.

Sir Digby’s tenure as the CBNI chief ends some time next year.