Labour City plans like ‘dog food lasagne’: Tories mount defensive in battle for the Square Mile
The former City minister claimed Labour’s plans for the City are like “dog food lasagne” today as the government looked to fight off a major Rachel Reeves charm offensive on the Square Mile.
Reeves unveiled Labour’s pitch to financial services this morning with a pledge to cut “redundant” regulation and “unashamedly champion” the sector if elected to government.
Among the plans would be a push to “tackle bureaucracy, overlap and inefficiencies” across the City’s main regulators, Labour said, including a drive to streamline the Financial Conduct Authority’s “10,000 page regulatory handbook”.
Reeves said separately this morning the party would not bring back a cap on bankers’ bonuses if elected to government.
The plans have triggered a major defensive effort from the government this morning in a sign of the struggle between both parties to win the backing of the City ahead of election.
“Whilst any U-turn to copy our reforms is welcome, Labour’s approach to the UK’s Financial Services sector is like a dog-food lasagne,” said the former City minister Andrew Griffith. “Sort of looks the same and may even fool some people but you really wouldn’t prefer it!”
The current City minister Bim Afolami, who last week told Morning Wire’s Bonds & Ballots series that he did not see himself in contest with Labour’s shadow City minister Tulip Siddiq, attacked Labour’s plans for business.
“It’ll be the City’s door that Labour come knocking on first when they hike taxes to pay for the £28bn spending spree,” Afolami said.
“After years of calling for higher taxes on the UK’s financial services sector – Labour can’t say what they’d do differently because they don’t have a plan of their own.”
Labour’s pitch today marks the party’s most direct effort to woo the sector and point to the contested battleground of business in the run up to the election.
The party is looking to rebuild ties with the City after a fractious relationship under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour leader Keir Starmer told Morning Wire last year Canada was a “force for good” and the party’s improved relations with the business community were a matter of “personal pride”.