A glance at the wealth of some of the signatories makes it hard to believe they care about ordinary people
How much weight the public attach to the letter by big business leaders supporting Conservative economic policy depends on whether people think the business leaders in question are motivated by altruism or self-interest.
A quick glance at the incredible wealth of some of the signatories, and the pay policies of their companies, makes it very difficult to believe they are concerned about the lives of ordinary people.
Pay details of selected FTSE 100 CEOs who signed the letter, and are compelled to disclose their pay in their companies’ annual reports, are as follows:
- Prudential CEO Tidjane Thiam was paid £11.8 million in 2014, up from a mere £8.7 million in 2013. In 2010, he struggled by on just £5.3 million, so people might not find it surprising that he thinks things have got better under the Coalition
- Andy Harrison, the CEO of Whitbread, which owns the Costa Coffee chain amongst other restaurant brands, was paid £6.3 million, over 400 times as much as his average employee. Again, CEO pay at Whitbread has increased from just £2.6 million in 2010
- George Weston, the chief executive of Primark owners Associated British Foods got a £5 million incentive payment last year, on top of a salary of around £1 million plus various other bonuses. His total pay added up to over £7 million, roughly 500 times as much as his average employee. Primark has been criticised for its refusal to pay ordinary workers the living wage
- Despite falling oil prices, BP could still afford to pay Bob Dudley around £9.4 million last year, up from about £8.8 million in 2013, though Aidan Heavey of Tullow Oil wasn’t so lucky – his company’s plummeting share price reduced his pay to just £2.4 million, compared to £2.8 million the previous year.
- In his final full year at Diageo, Paul Walsh was paid £15.6 million. Mr Walsh has previously argued that higher taxes on the rich make it harder for the UK to attract and retain top talent. Cynics might wonder if there was anyone in particular he had in mind.
These pay packages do not necessarily invalidate the opinions of the CEOs (though we should be wary of crediting them with the wisdom of Solomon) or have any bearing on whether they are right or wrong about Labour and Tory economic policies.
But such vulgar sums of money do make it easier for critics to argue that the letter’s authors are a bunch of self-serving racketeers concerned only with preserving an economic system that facilitates their own enrichment, rather than public-spirited entrepreneurs who genuinely want what’s best for the country.
Many sensible businesspeople have argued that the culture of executive greed – and the public contempt that it engenders – threatens the long-term sustainability of a capitalist system. The damage that such colossal pay packages do to the credibility of the authors of this letter is a very good case in point.
Luke Hildyard is a contributing editor at Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
54 Responses to “REVEALED: The fat cat pay packets of the Tory-supporting bosses”
Jack
That’s a naive statement; I’m guessing you’re quite young.
Although most people claim to care about ‘the poor’, very few actually give up significant time or money to help poor people beyond buying the Big Issue occasionally. They’re too busy getting on with their careers, raising families, and getting on with their lives. That’s most people. Whether it should be or not is another matter. But they’re not all broken up about the unemployed in Middlesbrough and they’re not going to switch political parties based upon that. The only people to whom it’s really an issue are kids and socialist worker types. But those people don’t decide elections.
Mr Milward
I’m waiting for 100 top business leaders to say how outrageous it is that the number of food banks has increased, or bemoan the fact that so many small charities have had their funding cease because of the financial squeeze on local authorities’ budgets.
Sarcastaballs
Of course all of these people basically fell off an apple cart and got 15m a year a salaries handed to them because they voted Tory, none of them will have evidenced the competency to run multi billion dollar businesses effectively through years of hard work, and they should be paid as much as me whilst I sit in my bedroom farting and eating cornflakes. Their understanding of the complex effects of market confidence on our bond markets and our government purse and the benefits and public spending tied to it will be inferior to mine by many many leagues. My own personal failures in life are the sole responsibility of whichever set of demons news international has painted for me over the last week and are in no way based on my life choices.
Mike Stallard
Look at the pictures above.
Are you not inspiring racial hatred? I wonder if that is acceptable?
Leon Wolfeson
And the people who actually have communities, and live in them. Who have been disenfranchised by Labour’s move right. But hey, details.
FPTP is the problem.