Labour in the City were delighted to host a virtual Q&A between Deborah Mattinson, founding partner of Britain Thinks and former political strategist to Gordon Brown, and 40 of our members. Deborah spoke about her new book ‘Beyond the Red Wall’ which analyses the underlying causes resulting in the 2019 election results and the totemic shift in party loyalties. For those who couldn’t make it in person here are some of…

How would you feel about your employer ushering you into a room and requiring you to pee in a bottle? That’s the scenario favoured by Shaun Bailey, the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, who wants to introduce random drug testing in the office. Bailey wants all businesses with more than 250 employees to sign up to a testing charter, routinely checking for signs of illegal drugs. He would then…

So Sajid Javid MP, ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, has a new job advising JP Morgan. For someone whose standing as a politician went up earlier this year after resigning – and someone who will go down in history as the UK’s first Chancellor of Asian heritage – Mr Javid seems unconcerned about how this move might diminish his reputation and that of his colleagues. It is reasonable for voters to…

Is it time to anonymise CVs to stamp out unconscious bias against BAME people in the financial services industry? Could banks and financial institutions bring in a “Rooney rule”, as in American football, whereby people of colour must be on the interview list for senior jobs? Should  responsibility be shouldered by white “allies” to promote ethnic diversity rather than leaving the battle to be fought by BAME colleagues? Those were…

Labour in the City were delighted to host a virtual Q&A between the newly appointed Shadow City Minister Pat McFadden MP and more than 70 of our members.  Pat provided an insider view on how the Labour Party is changing under Keir Starmer’s leadership, the type of relationship he wants with the City and Labour’s role championing wealth creation, as well as answering questions on a range of topics. For…

Thoughts on the election of Keir Starmer as Labour Leader from our COO There’s been a sigh of relief from many moderate Labour Party members at Keir Starmer’s election as leader. Disconcertingly, though, that relief has also been expressed across the political aisle in a cosy mood of establishment collaboration. George Osborne has taken to the airwaves to welcome a return to sensible opposition. Sajid Javid is looking forward to…

Thoughts from Labour in the City Chair, Sophia Morrell, following the General Election.   We are just three weeks out from Labour’s most disastrous election result since 1935 and there have already been many thousands of words offered on what went wrong. Where I’d like to offer a perspective is on Labour’s approach to business relations and wider economic policy. Renewing both of these in tandem will be critical to…

Thoughts from Labour in the City Membership Officer, Dave Clarke, on the General Election. The election result was obviously bad, but the evidence suggests that a progressive majority is possible. The result was widely heralded as a triumph for the tories, but their vote share only increased by 1.2% over the result of the 2017 general election under Theresa May’s leadership. In 2017 the combined share of the Tory and…

Reflections on the General Election from our Vice Chair, Bilal Mahmood Anyone who tries to give you a hot take about this election with one simple answer is selling you a dud. Part of the reasons behind our defeat have arguably been generations in the making. The fall of the red wall certainly happened on Jeremy’s watch, but even his most ardent critics would begrudgingly admit it wasn’t all down…

Some reflections from LITC Treasurer, Christian Mole Whilst Jeremy Corbyn is correct in saying that a period of reflection is needed, the danger is that this morphs into excessive navel gazing: the reality is quite simply that we need to start thinking properly about what the electorate wants, rather than the socialist fantasyland that we seem to have targeted in an policy programme which by the time election day came…