Tories struggle to secure backing of big business as campaign falters

Tory attempts to pull together a letter from major business chiefs backing the party in the run-up to the election have faltered, in the latest sign the campaign is struggling.

Senior Conservatives had hoped to drum up signatures, but were caught out after Labour — which is far ahead in the polls — released its own letter featuring more than 100 prominent backers last week.

An unwillingness among large businesses to sign a note supporting the Conservatives had hampered these efforts, people with knowledge of the campaign effort said.

Furthermore, having attacked Labour’s own letter for being dominated by former corporate leaders, Tory officials realised it was harder than expected to pull together a list featuring only current executives.

Instead, party officials are now trying to launch a letter of support from small and medium-sized enterprises, the people added.

“The pool of potential support [from small business] is bigger,” said one Tory aide.

Party officials also plan to ask select leaders of major businesses to back specific policies on a more ad hoc basis, such as when it secured significant support for allowing companies to write off investments against future tax.

“It’s definitely the trend to go for backing for specific policies,” said one Tory official.

Producing a letter signed by prominent business leaders has become a staple tactic in UK election campaigns, as parties vie to convince voters that they will be the best custodians of the economy.

In 2015, when facing a race with Ed Miliband’s Labour party, the Tories released a letter from 100 leaders, including BP chief executive Bob Dudley and Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam, backing its policies.

Some of the party’s business outreach this time has been carried out by Franck Petitgas, a former investment banker who is Sunak’s business adviser.

However, some public affairs directors for household-name businesses said they had not even been approached by the Conservatives. One former senior adviser suggested the Tories were more concerned in the current campaign with courting potential Reform voters than major enterprises.

Several corporate advisers say that Labour, fresh from its own business-backing letter, has already secured companies to back its policies on apprenticeships and a mortgage guarantee.

On May 27 — just five days after Rishi Sunak called the general election — Labour published a list of business figures who said the economy was “beset by instability, stagnation and a lack of long-term focus” and said it was “time for a change”.

The tally included a large numbers of former executives such as Andy Palmer, former chief executive of Aston Martin; John Holland-Kaye, former CEO of Heathrow airport; and Charles Harman, a former vice-chair at JPMorgan Cazenove.

At the time the Conservatives mocked the effort, saying on X: “Two years of pricey ‘prawn cocktail’ buttering-up and they release a letter of mostly former business people with *NO* current CEOs of FTSE 100 companies . . . sad! Keep fishing Keir.” 

But this attack made it harder for the Tories to put together a rival letter without “looking like total hypocrites”, one person involved in the process said, echoing concerns from several people within or close to the campaign.

One business lobbyist said: “Sitting chief executives are constrained from signing political letters by their own general counsels, unless they’re close to the end of their tenure and don’t care any more. So if you insist on limiting your letter to them then you’ve snookered yourself.”

The failure to garner public support also highlighted how Sir Keir Starmer’s party was “doing a lot of what we used to do so well”, one person within the Tory campaign said.

“The business letter is something we always used to have primed,” the person added. “I’ve been struck by how unprepared we seem compared to Labour, given we were the ones who were announcing the election.”

A public affairs adviser to one large UK company, who used to work for the Tories, echoed that sentiment: “[It’s] no good trying to ape Sun Tzu and catch your enemies off guard if your army is still sat on their arse back at the base.”

A Conservative spokesperson said: “We talk to business all the time.”