And of course we may see tweaks to corporation tax, with the generous reliefs that Rishi Sunak put in place to compensate, at least marginally, for the increase from 19pc to 25pc, limited again.
It does not stop there. While we are still waiting for the final version of the party’s manifesto, it is certain to include a huge extension of employment rights. Full legal protection is likely to be offered to workers from the first moment they start, zero hours contracts will be limited even if they escape an outright ban, and versions of trendy “wellness” fads such a “right to switch off” could be enshrined in law, empowering woke human resources overlords to increase their power even further.
The UK’s flexible labour market, one of our key advantages over our rivals since the 1980s, will finally be brought to an end.
Meanwhile, the pension funds that might have started investing in British equities again could be corralled into “green infrastructure” instead, regardless of whether it can make any profit, draining cash out of the stock market.
Add it all up, and one point is clear: the UK will be a far harder place to make money over the next five years. Labour talks about “growth” as if nobody ever thought of it before, but every single concrete policy it proposes is likely to slow the economy down even more.
The blunt truth is this: the UK faces five years of stagnation, trapped in a doom-loop of zero growth, rising taxes, and creaking public services. The returns will be dismal.
The actual election won’t be for another four weeks. But investors have already voted with their wallets, and delivered a damning verdict. They are getting out of Labour’s landslide Britain – and it is very hard to blame them.
