by Samuel Dale
One of the reasons Labour won in 1997 was the prawn cocktail offensive.
Labour ministers launched a three year schmoozathon with the City and business leaders.
It worked. When the Tories brought out their New Labour, New Danger fear campaign it had no bite.
Business leaders had listened to New Labour and would give them a chance.
The Tories couldn’t build a coalition of business leaders to make dire warnings about Labour as they had done in past elections.
Ed Miliband’s Labour party has undergone no sustained prawn cocktail offensive.
Instead it is at open war with business promising a waterfall of new taxes and regulations with no upside. It’s all stick and no carrot.
Tobocco firms, energy companies, rail operators, recruiters, hedge funds, banks, Sports Direct and pension companies are all in Labour cross-hairs to name but a few.
There are two serious consequences to the relentless attack on companies. Both point to serious political naïvety.
Firstly, when the Tories try their scare tactics next year they will find a rush of business leaders to join the cause. It will add bite to the attacks and damage Labour.
The best example is the Scottish referendum campaign when big businesses and employers made decisive interventions in the final few weeks.
Firms promised re-locations, job losses and market chaos. Voters were scared.
