Theresa May’s speech and Amber Rudd’s rhetoric have gone down like a cup of cold sick with business, wonks and free marketeers:
Institute of Directors:
“Business leaders are not pantomime villains, evading taxes and employing cheap labour from abroad out of some destructive desire to do Britain down… Plans to ‘name and shame’ companies who employ foreign workers, aside from adding to bureaucracy, send precisely the wrong message. The Prime Minister should instead listen to her own advice and remember that, in Britain, it doesn’t matter where you were born.”
Institute of Economic Affairs:
“This was an alarming attack on free markets and the Prime Minster’s pledge for more state intervention in business completely disregards the evidence that competition, deregulation and a light-touch approach breeds the best results.”
The Confederation of British Industry:
“Government must build on the great things so many firms are already doing and not impose approaches that look good on paper, but don’t make a difference in practice. Placing workers or consumers on boards can be a solution for some firms, but may not be the only or even best way of changing company culture.”
Adam Smith Institute:
“Mrs May’s speech was the opposite of pragmatic. We call on the Prime Minister to abandon her ideological attachment to interventionist economic policies, look at the evidence, and accept that it tells us that markets, not the state, are the solution to our problems.”
TaxPayers’ Alliance:
“The Prime Minister claims to believe in a low tax society, but action is needed to relieve taxpayers of the crippling tax bill plaguing every family and threatening economic growth. Mrs May spoke of balancing the books but by relaxing fiscal targets and continuing to overspend, hard-pressed families will each fork out £41,000 this year.”
Andrew Lilico:
“Rudd/May are over-compensating on immigration cos they backed Remain and think it’s a Leave voter caricature they must placate, not Leave’s case.”
The Bow Group however loved it. Tells you all you need to know.
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