Labour is throttling business - a change of direction is needed, says Matthew Lynn

Will the last major global business to leave Britain please turn off the punishingly expensive lights?

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves pictured in Downing Street
The Labour Government is hostile to business, says Matthew Lynn
(Image credit: Hollie Adams - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

“We love the UK,” insisted Santander’s CEO Ana Botín at Davos last week, only a few hours after reports surfaced that the bank was considering an exit from the UK market. It is not hard to see why she was so quick to squash the rumours. The Spanish financial giant has been a major force in the UK banking industry since it acquired Abbey National back in 2004, and if it was thinking about leaving the market the last thing it would want to do would be to frighten off depositors by threatening to close down. That would risk triggering a run on the bank. Even so, it is hard to believe that the story would have emerged if it was not at least under consideration.

Santander won’t be the last major company to think about leaving. WH Smith has announced that it is looking at selling its high-street shops, which is in effect its British operation, since the far more profitable travel business is a global one. It is leaving the UK in all but name. Ineos has closed its Grangemouth ethanol plant, with its founder Jim Ratcliffe warning that British industry faces extinction. The advertising giant WPP is reported to have looked at moving its listing from London to New York as it focuses its energies on the booming US market. The list goes on and on. Companies are getting out of Britain.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.