One of Labour’s richest backers has said he is “increasingly nervous” about Sir Keir Starmer’s party - and warned a wealth tax would be “very destructive” to growth.
John Caudwell, founder of Phones4U, was one of the biggest donors to the Tories ahead of the 2019 general election, when he gave half a million pounds to Boris Johnson’s campaign.
But he swapped allegiances and announced he would vote for Sir Keir after being a Conservative for 51 years, ahead of last year’s general election, as Labour won a landmark landslide victory.
Now, the billionaire has revealed he is in “despair of politicians” and warned that ministers are not doing enough to attract investment into the UK, the Guardian reports.
Speaking at the launch of a report from his charity Caudwell Youth, Mr Caudwell described how Labour is “going to be tossed from pillar to post” over the winter fuel saga and welfare rebellion.
“I am becoming increasingly nervous about what Labour are doing,” he said. “Especially when they get into this mess over the welfare bill because it feels as though there’s anarchy within the party.”
The billionaire also described Labour’s winter fuel payments cut as a “fiasco” before insisting that a wealth tax would be “very destructive” to growth.
He explained that the changes to agricultural property relief, workers' rights and increases to minimum wage and employers’ national insurance were creating a more difficult climate for businesses.
“You introduce a wealth tax on top of that and it just isn’t going to work,” he continued. “I know people that are leaving as we speak. They’re going to Monaco, they’re going to Dubai.
“I bet 10 people in the last three or four months have said, ‘Why don’t you go to Dubai?’ Well, I don’t want to go to Dubai, I’m British, I love it here. I don’t mind paying my taxes.
“I want to influence rich people to do more philanthropically and to pay taxes. A wealth tax would be very destructive on top. I don’t say that because I’m trying to protect my money – because I’m giving it away.”
His comments come after Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones on Monday declined to rule out the introduction of a wealth tax - as Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces having to plug a multi-billion pound black hole caused by Labour U-turns on welfare cuts.
Mr Caudwell, who has pledged to give away more than 70% of his £1.58bn fortune, said he could never support Reform UK due to the need to tackle the climate crisis and called for Labour to be bolder on net zero.
But the billionaire did welcome some important changes from Labour, praising pension funds, planning changes and green energy. He called for schemes such as Great British Energy to go further.
He also revealed that he had repeatedly offered advice to Sir Keir and the Chancellor Rachel Reeves but there had not been much interest in his ideas.
“There seems to be a lack of that commercial intellect that we desperately need in government to make long-term right decisions,” he said.
“I despair of politicians in general,” Mr Caudwell said. “You’ve got to attract inward investment to create high-paid jobs and in technology, sciences and especially in the environment since that’s going to be the absolute future of mankind.
“There’s so much we need to do and there’s so little we do, and that was the Conservative party before and now it’s the Labour party.”
He said he did not regret his decision to switch sides to the Labour party but insisted the left wing party could have done much better.
Mr Caudwell had previously said he was “amazed by how Sir Keir Starmer had transformed the Labour Party and brought it back from that Corbyn brink.”
Sir Keir had described how he was“delighted” that the billionaire had “thrown his support behind the changed Labour Party”.
