Accountants and those in financial occupations have always typically favoured the Conservatives, perhaps due to their stance regarding taxation, but have shown a huge shift from this time last year.
Of the 427 accountants asked “Who is the best party to lead the country?” 48% backed the Conservative Party. This is an increase on last year of 7%. Only 29% of accountants backed the Labour Party; which is a significant decrease of 8% on last year’s results. The Liberal Democrats came in at third place with 18% of the votes, a 3% increase on last year’s poll.
These results come off the back of style magazine GQ labelling David Cameron the country’s most influential person, beating Prime Minister Gordon Brown into second place.
Duane Jackson, Managing Director of KashFlow said,
“We work very closely with Accountants and this survey has given us a fascinating insight into how the accounting industry will vote. Year on year, the Conservatives are developing as the party accountants most want to see in power.”
Reasons for this political sway could be due to the shaky start Gordon Brown has had to his reign, including the way that Labour have dealt with issues such as the Northern Rock nationalisation, the credit crunch crash and the EU referendum.
Gordon Brown has also been accused of ‘stealing’ Conservative policies, including raising the inheritance tax threshold and taxing ‘non-domiciles’, which may not have helped his popularity with those in the accounting sector.
Duane believes that Alistair Darling’s budget has impacted on the way small businesses will grow and will not help Labour’s plight in the polls, highlighting the fact that the Chancellor has reduced corporation tax for larger companies, but intends to tax SMEs an extra 1% for the following two years.
“SMEs with a turnover of less than £300’000 now face a huge tax bill for at least the next two years. With banks clinging onto their purse-strings so tightly in terms of business loans, the chips are definitely stacked against the growth of smaller businesses.”
