Re-Nationalisation Plans Of Labour Party Will Cost £175bn, Says CBI


The head of the biggest business lobby of the United Kingdom has slammed the plans of the Labour Party to renationalise key infrastructures in Britain, such as water, energy, and rail.

Today, Carolyn Fairbairn, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said in a speech: “The Labour Party’s current proposals get the balance wrong and will harm the very people they are intended to help. They already have prompted investors in our country to reach for their coats.”

The Labour Party is the biggest opposition party of the United Kingdom. It has repeatedly promised to re-nationalise infrastructures such as energy supply networks, railways, water suppliers, and mail delivery if they win power. The plans for the re-nationalisation were considered to be a significant part of the 2017 election manifesto of the party.

In a speech last year, Jeremy Corbyn the leader of the Labour Party, stated: “We need to put Britain at the forefront of the wave of international change in favour of public, democratic ownership and control of our services and utilities.”

Today, Fairbairn said that the plans would “do profound harm” to the UK economy and make up to eight million people “poorer in their old age” because of the investments that were made by pension funds in the private firms that currently provide these services.

In a speech at Liverpool John Moores University, Fairbairn stated: “The sense that the current system is run not for consumers, but for shadowy investors exploiting ordinary people for personal gain, is not the true picture.”

She added: “Those investors are not the unaccountable fat cats of fiction. They are you and me. They’re anyone who pays into a pension, donates to one of our big charities or participates in an employee ownership scheme.”

She continued: “Take the water company that supplies Liverpool. It’s 70% owned by pension funds, charities, and employees.”