Labour Vows to Work With Tech Firms Seeking UK Listing


(Bloomberg) — A Labour government will work with technology firms that want to list their shares in London, the party’s business spokesman said, as the UK’s main opposition seeks to burnish its business credentials ahead of an election expected in the fall.

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In an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jonathan Reynolds said he had spoken to several technology companies wishing to list in Britain. He said he was open to introducing incentives, citing measures used in France by President Emmanuel Macron, and pledged to maintain a positive dialog with business.

Macron has introduced huge incentives for the life sciences and technology sector, which Reynolds noted with interest. “What I take from it is you can make a difference,” he said, declining to give policy specifics.

Reynolds’s remarks are yet more evidence of the sea-change that’s taken place in the UK’s main opposition party under leader Keir Starmer. He’s sought to distance Labour from the policies of his left-wing predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, that were interpreted by corporate Britain as anti-business, including nationalizations of utilities and the Royal Mail.

Labour’s presence in Davos is a testament to that turnaround, with Reynolds and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves pursuing a charm offensive to court international business leaders and encourage investment in Britain. In the Swiss resort, they’ve met with bosses from Moderna, Orsted and Rio Tinto.

They also held two events, one hosted by JP Morgan and another by Bank of America. Reynolds said their profile was boosted by the delayed arrival of Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, who landed overnight.

“We’ve been in many ways the principal UK political presence here, which has been a huge opportunity,” he said. “We see not just the economic agenda of the future Labour government, but the whole policy agenda as being contingent on increasing business investment, better productivity, better growth. All the ambitions for public services require a stronger economy.”

Businesses are also increasingly seeking to meet with top Labour politicians, because the party looks more and more like — and portrays itself as — a government-in-waiting. Labour has led Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservatives by a poll lead that’s fluctuated around 20 points for more than a year, with YouGov’s latest survey for the Times, published late Wednesday, putting them 27 points ahead.

UK banks are privately worried that a Labour government would raise their taxes, either by increasing the levy on their balance sheets or by increasing the surcharge on their profits. But Reynolds downplayed the risk saying “We’ve got to stop talking about financial services just in terms of how much tax they contribute.”

Specific policies will be set by Reeves if Labour wins office, he said.

Banks also want Labour to continue with the Conservative government’s City of London reforms, including modernizing the listing rules and introducing a competitiveness objective for the financial regulators.

Reynolds said Labour would back competitiveness plans that were sensible. “We are as concerned as everyone about the health of UK capital markets,” he said. He pointed out that Labour did not oppose the removal of the cap on bankers’ bonuses, even if it would have won points with supporters.

And while Labour called for a windfall tax on the energy sector after the war in Ukraine drove up their profits, Reynolds dismissed the prospect of using that instrument more widely, saying such levies should be used in specific circumstances and not just to raise revenues for the public purse.

“Windfall taxes are not a good policy tool in the sense they bring an uncertainty, they affect your perceptions in a place to invest,” he said.

(Updates with chart after eighth paragraph. An earlier version of this story was corrected to say Royal Mail in the fourth paragraph.)

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