Will Rachel Reeves scrap the private equity tax break?

I’ve been reading – so you don’t have to – speeches recently addressed to a hot-ticket gathering of business leaders at the Oval cricket ground by Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves. The nub is a promise to hold corporation tax at the current rate of 25 per cent for the duration of the next parliament, combined with a warning that ‘levelling up of workers’ rights’ will cause companies’ labour costs to rise. Then there’s all the usual guff you’d expect from a government-in-waiting about infrastructure and skills; plus an unusually warm tone towards the financial services sector, including a pledge not to reinstate the EU-inspired cap on bankers’ bonuses that was abolished by Kwasi Kwarteng.

In essence, Britain’s boardrooms now believe Labour can’t lose the forthcoming election and the City’s chieftains – the likes of Sir Douglas Flint of abrdn, Nigel Higgins of Barclays and Sir John Kingman of Legal & General – have been lining up to join its advisers.