There should be “no surprises” from the front page of the Daily Telegraph today, says Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna. The paper runs with a statement signed by 100 business chiefs claiming that a Labour victory would put the country’s economic recovery at risk.
But Umunna says that seeing business people “calling for low taxes for big businesses” is “nothing new”, and that Labour’s priority was to cut business rates for over a million small businesses. He said:
“No one will be surprised that some business people are calling for low taxes for big businesses. That’s nothing new and under Labour Britain will have the most competitive corporation tax rate in the G7.
“But whilst the recovery may have reached some firms it hasn’t reached many others which is why we will prioritise tax cuts for the smallest firms with an immediate cut in business rates for 1.5 million small business premises.
”And because we understand that Britain only succeeds when working people succeed we are today announcing our plans to ban exploitative zero hour contracts.
“We don’t believe, as David Cameron does, in more tax cuts for the richest in society – the priority is tax cuts for small firms, working people and saving our NHS.”