Nearly half of business owners polled by the Supper Club, The Telegraph reports that the business network representing companies turning over more than £1m, said they would move their headquarters overseas to avoid Mr Corbyn’s policies.
As many as 44 per cent said they would flee, while 24 per cent said they would stay in the UK, and 32 per cent were undecided.
An overwhelming 78 per cent said Mr Corbyn would be bad for the economy and 65 per cent cited a rise in trade unions as a key risk to the economy.
“Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister would be catastrophic to business and growth prospects,” said Dan Scarfe, chief executive of technology firm Dot Net Solutions. “He represents the politics of fantasyland. The unions have a stranglehold on important aspects of the country, such as transport.
“If their confidence is given a shot in the arm by Corbyn, it could have a dramatic impact on the millions of small businesses desperately trying to grow this country out of recession.”
“He has damaged the Labour Party and made it unelectable for the foreseeable future,” added Mark Kempster, chief of travel business CTT Group. “I think sense will prevail and the current Government will continue, provided they don’t do anything stupid.”
Their remarks came as the Adam Smith Institute think tank warned Mr Corbyn’s support of nationalisation could imperil Britain’s utilities.
“Investment is much higher than before privatisation,” it said, with water companies and National Grid investing a combined £7.4bn a year, compared with the “woefully inadequate” funds they received in government hands.
“We do not want to go back to the dismal lack of customer service of nationalised services,” said ASI director Eamonn Butler. “It is true that some utility prices have risen, but prices had to rise to fund the investment in networks that frankly had been allowed to decay and crumble for 40 years.”
Meanwhile, the financial services industry is extending an olive branch to the party, with both the City of London Corporation and lobby group TheCityUK writing to Labour’s front-benchers.
As well as planning utilities nationalisations, shadow chancellor John McDonnell has spoken of his desire to re-nationalise firms that could include Royal Mail, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.
“Regardless of things they have said in the past, financial services is this country’s leading taxpaying industry, and we want them to be as well-briefed as possible on its economic potential, and how it can best work with them as they seek to develop policies,” said Chris Cummings, chief of TheCityUK.
“There are 2.1m people that work in financial services across the UK. There are good reasons why Labour’s leadership would want to think more deeply about policies and come up with ones that really champion the competitiveness of the industry.”
