It was inevitable that Brexit, taxing mega-corporations and business rates would feature when would-be MPs fielded questions from business owners and entrepreneurs at a city centre hustings.
The event was hosted by East Midlands Chamber of Commerce at the Leicester Tigers Ground, to test the General Election hopefuls on how committed they are to backing 海角视频 business.
The four candidates under the spotlight were:
Stuart Brady, Labour candidate for Loughborough (current MP Nicky Morgan)
Tara Baldwin, Brexit candidate for Leicester East (current MP Keith Vaz)
Andrew Bridgen, Tory candidate for North West Leicestershire (current MP Andrew Bridgen)
Zuffar Haq, Liberal Democrat candidate for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston (current MP Neil O’Brien)
Chamber non-executive director Stuart Dawkins chaired the session
This is how they introduced themselves:
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Stuart Brady, Labour candidate for Loughborough
“I’m really excited about the Labour manifesto and what we are going to do for business, because the East Midlands gets way below it’s fair share of public investment in particular, and investment in things like transport and rail.
“Comparatively the 海角视频 economy is not doing particularly well in terms of growth and in terms of investment.
“We’ve got a completely different model of capitalism, let’s say, and I believe massively and our party believes in free enterprise, people taking a risk and putting their money on the line, to build businesses and jobs for other people.
“This is not something you can leave the private sector to do on its own, because the private sector needs help, and that’s particularly the case here in the East Midlands, where we are literally bottom in the league table for investments.
“We have a national transformation fund for big infrastructure investments – things like Midland Mainline electrification – and a national investment bank, with regional investment banks, with a different model providing the long-term finance, which is particularly well-placed to assist the strengths of our region.”
Tara Baldwin, Brexit candidate for Leicester East
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“The Brexit party has a very different model – no manifestos. The fact that we are a company in and of itself says that we resonate with the business sector.
“We have a contract, not a manifesto. We don’t believe in empty promises, we don’t believe in marketing gimmicks around General Elections.
“We are brutally realistic and come from many professions and our contract is something that is a binding agreement between us and the people of the community.
“So it’s deliverable targets that we are specifically focussed on at this point in time. We believe that capitalism and democracy are interwoven and that the deeper the democracy, the greater the opportunity for capitalism, and that includes social enterprises as well.
“We have three fundamental aspects to our approach – independence, that allows us to be self-determining and self-governing, which allows us to control our investment framework.
“Then, our investment framework is based on regional regeneration, based on what we call a turbo-charged economy, looking at very specific initiatives for small and medium-sized enterprises, the high street, for boosting the little businesses in this country.”
She said after investment the third part of the approach was innovation, from “political innovation” such as abolishing the House of Lords, to “social innovation” in areas such as public services.
Andrew Bridgen, Tory candidate for North West Leicestershire
“When I became the MP for North West Leicestershire it was the most deprived area in Leicestershire. It’s now enjoying the highest economic growth outside London and the South East.
“This is the most important election probably in our lifetimes. We’ve said that every single election – this is my fourth General Election in less than 10 years – but this time it’s the truth, I promise you.
“Because there is a huge difference between the ideologies. The Conservative party is a party that knows that everything good in the world starts with someone, somewhere making a profit and paying tax.
“There is the difference in ideology between a government now under Boris Johnson that sees taxation as something that is essential to pay for the public services we all need and deserve, and the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn, which is the only other alternative government where taxation is seen as a way of punishing success, hard work and diligence.”
Zuffar Haq, Liberal Democrat candidate for Oadby, Wigston and Harborough
“This election isn’t about me, it’s not even about the Liberal Democrats, it’s about what kind of country we are going to be living in.
“We have got hospitals here in Leicester that 3-400 nurses have left, who came from Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece.
“We have the same problems in social care, where a lot of people who came in from Europe have now left, so care homes are struggling to get staff
“We’ve got the construction industry also struggling to get workers such as bricklayers, and we need housing because there is a huge shortage there.
“We had the farmers only a few weeks ago saying millions of apples had been left on the trees because they’ve got nobody to pick those crops. Farmers were telling me only last week it’s not just the crop pickers, but we haven’t got enough vets because there were European vets coming here. We’ve also got shortages of abattoir staff as well.
“So we’ve got a huge problem with Brexit. We need to remain and the reason we need to remain is we need those people to be able to come in.
“We’ve got a whole list of car companies, Rolls Royce, BMW, so many other companies, that are really scared about what’s going on and they are looking at their investments and thinking “is the 海角视频 the best place?”.
“Really, are we going to close ourselves in and become isolationist and turn our backs on Europe and try to do a trade deal with Donald Trump?
“We are going to become the corner shop instead of the Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco of the world.”
How do you see the business and political landscape in five years time?
Stuart Brady: Brexit overshadows “absolutely” everything, he said, and the “Get Brexit Done” slogan was empty because it just applies to the Withdrawal Agreement – and actual future framework is unknown.
Negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with the EU could go “on and on and on” he said.
Those and other negotiations will lead to more uncertainty, so we need another referendum and he would campaign to remain.
A £400 billion, 10 year Labour government fund would help the green economy, with additional investment on a par with some Scandinavian countries.
Tara Baldwin: She wants to readdress “inadequacies” in the balance of power.
Her party is a “futuristic, radical, revolutionary” party, offering political reform, deeper democracy, regional regeneration with do-able things “on the ground today”.
She wants to bring business individuals and government together in a new way.
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Andrew Bridgen: A majority Conservative government would leave the EU on or before January 31, as “every” Tory candidate has signed up to Boris Johnson’s deal.
He said the transition period would mean quota and tariff free-trade with everything “as is” and no extension beyond December 31, 2020.
No-deal would be back on the table though, which he said was a “guarantee” the country would get a good deal, because there would be a “walk-away” position.
Also, during transition the 海角视频 would be under EU laws, but with no say in them so would need the get-out clause in case the EU wanted to pass laws that were detrimental to the economy of the 海角视频.
While negotiating with the EU, we would be able to negotiate free trade deals with other countries, which would end the uncertainty hanging over the business community like a “dark cloud”.
He agreed that business investment and the economy had been suppressed by uncertainty but the EU “desperately” needed a free trade agreement with the 海角视频.
Zuffar Haq: He said it does not make sense to turn your back on your nearest trading partner and say you are going to do business with Australia, New Zealand or South America.
If you are a Toyota, Nissan or Ford, you will be put off by no-deal staying on the table, creating more uncertainty.
The Tories, he said, are the Brexit party which means no security for business.
A second referendum would get it sorted once and for all, and staying in the EU would ensure the next electric car maker, for instance, will invest in Britain, not Berlin.
International companies come to the 海角视频 because of Europe and we are going to lose that.
Immigration, he said, helps the country move forward, because it brings in talent from the whole of Europe.
How would they stop Amazon – which pays a low proportion of tax – putting more SMEs out of business?
Zuffar Haq: They should pay the “full, proper” tax and retail rates.
Business rates should be reviewed, and small shops should be protected for people who find it hard to shop on line.
Andrew Bridgen: It is dangerous to attack Amazon, he said, because consumers have made the choice to buy online.
Amazon employs 1,000 people in his area and pay £4 million a year business rates.
But planning needs to be relaxed to help shops.
Multi-nationals should not have safe havens to avoid paying tax. Maybe a turnover tax would help.
Tara Baldwin: SMEs are the backbone of Britain, which helped this country win two wars, and there should be “deep” incentives to support them.
Her party would have zero corporate tax for small companies with low profits.
Online sales taxation should be increased to let business on the ground have a chance.
Stuart Brady: Labour says multi-nationals should be taxed on economic activity “within the jurisdiction” in which that happens.
His party wants to take on monopolies and regulate them.
Maybe, big tech should be broken up to split conflicts of interest and not have a position of dominance.
How would they restore public trust in politics?
Zuffar Haq: The language used by politicians has been “terrible”, he said. Everyone is entitled to a view, and if you can’t say something good, move on. The leaders in particular need to change the way they talk to people.
Andrew Bridgen: He said the reason so many MPs are standing down is they “have not got the guts” to stand on the doorstep and look the electorate in the eye because they have “let them down so badly”.
Tara Baldwin: She said she wants the community to engage with her. Responding to them as a facilitator, rather than a leader, will restore trust.
Stuart Brady: Parliament should have the same standards that you would find in a business. He said the threats MPs are getting from the public are partly because of the way the temperature has been “ratcheted up by the surrender bill language, the traitor language and all the rest of it”.