A number of Indian-origin entrepreneurs have backed Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party in the upcoming UK General Election in May, warning that a government led by Opposition labour party would "threaten jobs and deter investment".
Cameron, who currently leads the coalition government along with the liberal Democrats, will celebrate the backing as an early bounce in the election campaign. As many as 103 leading business men and women signed a letter to the 'The Daily Telegraph' today warning that government led by the Opposition labour party would "threaten jobs and deter investment" in the UK. Among them are Cobra Beer founder lord Karan Bilimoria, Indian-born hotelier Surinder Arora, Veetee Rice founder Moni Varma, Greene King pubs chain CEO Rooney Anand, Edwardian Group hotels chief Jasminder Singh and Ultra Electronics CEO Rakesh Sharma. The other signatories include senior executives from nine FTSE 100 companies and 21 FTSE 250 companies as well as small and medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs.
The UK-based executives who have signed the 'Telegraph' letter belong to some of the country's leading retail companies including Primark, Iceland, ladbrokes, Costa Coffee, Ted Baker, Mothercare and lK Bennett. Well-known consumer brands represented include Cobra Beer, Kingsmill, Robinsons, Tango and london Pride. The letter reads: "We run some of the leading businesses in the UK. We believe this Conservative-led Government has been good for business and has pursued policies which have supported investment and job creation. "David Cameron and [UK Chancellor] George Osborne's flagship policy of progressively lowering Corporation Tax to 20 per cent has been very important in showing the UK is open for business. It has been a key part of their economic plan. "The result is that Britain grew faster than any other major economy last year and businesses like ours have created over 1.85m new jobs.
"We believe a change in course will threaten jobs and deter investment. This would send a negative message about Britain and put the recovery at risk." While it has been pounced upon by the ruling Tories as resounding support for the government's policies, labour has dismissed it as the view of only a fraction of UK business. The elections will take place on May 7. "This was a letter organised by the Conservative Party in a Conservative-supporting newspaper. We've got almost five million businesses in our country. At best you could say the people who signed this represent 0.002 per cent of them," labour's shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said. However, Chancellor George Osborne said the message "could not be clearer" about who was trusted more by the business community.
"An intervention on this scale and with this clarity from Britain's business leaders is unprecedented in any recent general election," he said. Meanwhile, the opinion polls continue to reflect what is being described as a "knife-edge" election. A YouGov poll has Conservative and labour at level- pegging on 35 per cent; TNS gives the Conservatives a one-point lead versus labour (33 per cent to 32 per cent) with the far-right UKIP on 16 per cent – their highest figure in a campaign poll so far. The lib Dems were down from 22 per cent in 2010 to 8 per cent now.
