00:00I expected them to be more business-friendly because that's the message that they saw very, very heavily in the
00:05run-up to the election.
00:07They really seduced very heavily most of the chief executives of the FTSE companies and business in general with a
00:15very, very high business growth story.
00:18And they sounded passionate about it right the way through the shadow cabinet.
00:24So it was very encouraging.
00:26But at the same time, of course, I was disillusioned with the Tories and there was nobody else for me
00:32to vote for.
00:33So it was either Labour or nobody.
00:35But then also, in addition to that, I knew Labour were going to win.
00:39It was pretty much a certainty in my mind.
00:42So I felt it better to be supportive of them and see if I could influence them in the right
00:47direction to create business growth and therefore GDP per capita in the UK.
00:53And therefore, everybody to be better off.
00:55Not the rich, everybody to be better off.
00:58And now you come on to the reality, don't you?
01:01And the reality is that the first budget, I think, was a disaster.
01:06There was ways of raising the money in a much more productive way that would ensure GDP growth in the
01:15long term.
01:17And it was a very disappointing budget.
01:19And everything I've seen since then really is broadly disappointing.
01:23So, you know, I think the UK really needs a good shake up.
01:26We really need to get to grips with what really needs doing rather than ideology politics that are really trying
01:35to buy votes.
01:36Because I don't, that's definitely not going to work.
01:39And the poor will be worse off than they would be as a result of the vote-buying tactics.
01:46Would a change in leader help to change your mind or are you done with Labour now?
01:52No, I think, you know, I have to be supportive of Keir because changes in leaders are never going to
01:59work.
02:00And if Andy Burnham gets in as Prime Minister, what will that do?
02:04We might become even more left-wing.
02:06And what we really need is a radical change now to be business-friendly, to attract inward investment,
02:13and to do everything that is growth-orientated so that we can look after the whole economy from top to
02:21bottom,
02:21so that we prosper as a nation rather than have a situation where the GDP growth doesn't allow the potholes
02:30to be repaired,
02:31doesn't allow the NHS to be invested in, and doesn't allow general social services investment.
02:36What do you mean by radical?
02:38Because it felt like there was just a void of ideas after 14 years of being out in the wilderness
02:43for Labour.
02:44Do you think that the public backs radical change?
02:48Well, I think, you know, radical is very, very difficult to get that message across.
02:54What does it mean and how does it affect people?
02:57If I were in power, it would be radical.
03:01People perhaps wouldn't like it, but I'd be trying to sell the message very heavily about what my intentions were,
03:07which would be to make as much money as we possibly can in Britain by inward investment.
03:12I would also encourage people to think, rather than how can I earn more money per hour,
03:20how can I help my company to prosper more in a way that then enhances my own income in the
03:29long term?
03:30Now, it's an ideology, but I achieved it in my business with 12,000 people.
03:33I ran a meritocracy, and I, right from day one, when I was sitting there on my own, right the
03:39way through,
03:40encouraged people to understand that if the business prospered, so would they.
03:44And that's what we need to do as a country.
03:46Well, you talk about the smoked salmon offensive, what was it, that Labour went on rolling out the red carpet
03:52for business.
03:53Today, you've got the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, urging regulators to dial up risk in financial services,
04:00so making a play for the city. Do you believe that, or do you just see it as standard, what
04:05politicians do when they're trying to win votes?
04:08Well, of course, that's exactly what they do. They're trying to win votes all the time.
04:12But do I believe in a radical change in the bureaucracy in the city?
04:19Yes and no.
04:20I think we have to be very protective that we don't get back into the actions of the early 2000s
04:27when there was a lack of controls,
04:31and we ended up with all these junk bonds being embedded in AAA papers and the cause of the financial
04:38crisis eventually.
04:40So we do need to be, to an extent, cautious, but at the same time, we don't need to over
04:45-regulate in a way that stifles growth and stifles entrepreneurship.
04:51We're speaking to John Caldwell, founder of Phones For You, and about the switch that he made from being a
04:57Conservative donor to a Labour Party donor in 2024 as well.
05:00I'm thinking about the political landscape, obviously in focus this week because of the by-election that we have in
05:05Makerfield
05:06and what that might mean for the leadership of the Labour Party.
05:09But what do you make, I suppose, of the broader political landscape now,
05:13given that we've had the rise in popularity in polls of the likes of Reform UK?
05:17We've been talking this morning about restoring the polling where they are in the Makerfield by-election as well.
05:23Well, can I just first of all correct the fact that I'm not a donor?
05:26I did donate to the Tory party just once in my life.
05:30I've not donated to Labour. I just supported them.
05:33But, you know, the landscape, the political landscape, I think, in the UK is extremely worrying.
05:40It's fragmented. And we do need a strong government, but we need a strong government with the right principles who
05:47can really create GDP growth.
05:50And I'm very much hoping that the Tories make a comeback and produce a really strong shadow cabinet and can
05:59win voter support and do the right thing.
06:01So that's what I'm hoping. I feel that I'm probably going to be disappointed, unfortunately.
06:08And that will leave me struggling to know where to support or vote.
06:12Well, what do they need to do to get you back then?
06:14Because, you know, we've talked a lot about non-DOMs and the policies that Labour have been carrying out,
06:21but that started under the Conservatives.
06:23And I wonder whether this picture is so bad in the UK you'd actually leave, like many non-DOMs.
06:30Do you know, the only thing that would drive me out of the UK is really losing pride in Britain.
06:38Let me just qualify that, because I do love Monaco.
06:41I'm one of the few people that live in Monaco and pay UK taxes, because I love the cycling there.
06:47And, you know, my partner is absolutely wedded to that area.
06:51She comes from there and she just loves the area.
06:53So I am very, very positive about Monaco.
06:57But it's not from a tax residency point of view.
07:00But if the UK continues down this pathway, I would be tempted to leave.
07:09I don't know whether I'd change my tax residency, because that's not really a big thing on my agenda.
07:13You know, I'm leaving 70% of my wealth to charity during or after my lifetime.
07:19It's not about creating personal wealth for me or my family.
07:23But I do need to feel proud of my country.
07:26And over the last 15 years, that pride has started to diminish.
07:31And I'm very, very patriotic.
07:33And it's why I keep fighting for my country.
07:35I keep trying to influence in a way that I know will be positive.
07:39Now, you ask what we need to do.
07:40I mean, we need to do a lot, but we need to attract inward investment.
07:44I gave Boris Johnson, I've given Keir Starmer the formula to attract inward investment.
07:49But they don't do anywhere near enough.
07:51And there's so much can be done.
07:52When I ran my business, I was on it every second of the day, drive, drive, drive, trying to find
07:58solutions.
07:59Challenges come, you conquer those challenges and make things better the next day.
08:03And we need to do that in the UK with a huge focus on growth.
08:08Not to create more billionaires, but to create inward investment, to create wealth in the UK that can trickle down
08:16to the average working person.
08:18And the way you achieve that is by attracting inward investment in high-paid jobs, in AI, in technology, in
08:24science, especially in the environment.
08:27And you bring those companies to the UK.
08:29You give them a reduced corporation tax, providing they achieve a set of objectives.
08:34And those objectives are higher paid jobs than average for the working people of Britain and the number of employments.
08:42And if we do that, we create extra corporation tax because we would never have had it.
08:48And we create high-paid jobs.
08:50And we create more jobs.
08:52And this is particularly important at the moment because we do have a tsunami of unemployment coming along as a
08:58result of AI.
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