Multimillionaire backs Labour as Tories 'out of ideas’ on education
The Conservatives have been abandoned by yet another big donor who has announced switching support to the Labour Party.
In a fresh blow to Rishi Sunak, multimillionaire Lord Harris of Peckham who had been a longtime supporter of the Tory Party has announced he is backing Labour in the general election.
The founder of Carpetright and chair of a federation for schools criticised the Conservative record on education and said they had not put children first. Although he praised the work of Michael Gove when he was Education Secretary, he went on to put his support behind the shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson who he described as ‘impressive’.
In a letter to The Times, Lord Harris said: “At this election it is no longer the Conservatives who are the party of high and rising standards, no longer the Conservatives putting our children and their schools front and centre. Despite a merry-go-round of ministers in recent years, they are out of ideas.”
He added: “At this election the party for people who care about education is, as it was a quarter of a century back, Labour. The torch of change has passed.”
It comes after the billionaire Phones4U founder John Caudwell switched allegiance to Labour in July, having previously given Boris Johnson £500k to take on Jeremy Corbyn. He cited Keir Starmer’s transformation of the party and said he was ‘despairing’ at the last few years under the Tories, as reasons he changed allegiance.
(Image credit: Roger Harris / Wikimedia)
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
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