If you own a business who are you backing in the election and why

[iamadalek2]

Interested to hear from business owners as to who you are backing in the forthcoming election. I honestly cannot find a party and/or leader I think I could back. I have a micro business and a small
Sme and the future scares me. Maybe I'm missing something.

The Labour Party. Because I want a fairer society not a country run by the 1% for the benefit of the 1%.

If I was in Scotland I would probably vote SNP though, because Scottish Labour is dead in the water.

@99RedBalloonsFloating how do the labour v conservatives policy's affect your business? I'm worried if labour get in I'd have to close our sme business due to their policies and we'd need to make 10 people redundant.

I'd have to close our sme business due to their policies and we'd need to make 10 people redundant

Why on earth do you think that?

I'm usually a Labour voter but agree with the PP who says Scottish Labour is a joke. Our candidate is a 19 year old student! They are not even trying....

I am loath to vote for the SNP candidate as he is an odious self promoter but may well do that. I don't think SNP business policies are bad for business. (I do have issues with some of their other policies and decisions). I'm in a Tory marginal and SNP probably have best chance of shifting him.

OP please don’t take this as goady but are you getting that info from a tabloid?

OllyBJolly, don't vote SNP unless you support independence. I think I can guess which constituency you are in and can just imagine the victorious 'odious self promoter' quoting, 'He who holds Stirling, holds Scotland'.

@99RedBalloonsFloating hi not from a tabloid. Directly from Corbyn. Pushing living wage up is going to close the high streets. It won't take much as so many independent shops operate on marginal profit. He's going after "bosses" raising corporation tax and squeezing SMEs. 1 in ten workers are self employed in the uk abc I'm genuinely worried. Btw there are no parties so far offering to help businesses so this Isnt directed at labour. Boris' ni offering last night was a tiny token and he didn't seem to even understand it himself urgh he embarrassed himself over this. Do hard to choose who to vote for out of this bad lot.

Labour, for a fairer society for all, as 99Balloons said above. Because I see all of us struggling with the cuts to the NHS, schools, transport, benefits ad anfinitum, and I want the best for everyone not just me and my family.
The living wage being proposed by Labour isn’t really much above minimum wage, and I know I’d struggle to live on that amount with any degree of comfort, so as an employer of about 15 people I aim to pay at least that anyway (even when I can’t pay myself the same sometimes!).

*ad infinitum- my spellcheck corrected me!

@QueenoftheIceAge I agree a fairer society for all. I just worry it will close the hugh street. We can survive only if we push up prices so it then doesn't really help anyone. I would be better off closing shop and working in an unskilled role as would earn more. Downside is my staff lose their jobs. Really really difficult

Pushing living wage up is going to close the high streets.

Those employees being paid LW are using the high street too. The less employers pay, the less people will have to spend.

@iamadalek2 I personally think far more key to saving the high street than allowing employers to continue to pay sub-par wages to staff is to completely reform the business rates system which has not caught up with various developments in particular the advantages that large mainly online businesses have.

How many employees do you have?

@Willow82 That quote may have been true in the Middle Ages but is clearly not anymore given that Stirling is currently Tory and they definitely do not "hold Scotland" and indeed never have!

We're all in a position where no matter who gets in, hard times are ahead.
People deserve to be paid well enough for a job that they can use the high street - that fact's been overlooked for too long.
Scottish Labour are absolute children, the SNP works if you are all right with the potential for another indyref (even if it's likely to go nowhere in the next couple of years at least).
Personally I can't vote Tory and the LibDems and Greens don't have what it takes so it's between Labour and SNP for me. I still haven't decided. I'm resigned to tough times whatever and working on changes to mitigate the recession that's coming.

@99RedBalloonsFloating yeah good point about business rates. It's really dated. I really feel this government hasn't done anything to help small businesses and conservatives were always the party that supported business. Tough times ahead no matter who gets in I think.

The Scottish Government has already put in business rates relief for small businesses. I know it is one of the things that my db, who has a small business (and also rents out some of his business premises) gave the SNP credit for - even though he'd been on the fence about independence (FWIW, he's no longer on the fence for other reasons )

https://www.mygov.scot/non-domestic-rates-relief/small-business-bonus-scheme/

As an aside, I'm not 100% sure that the OP realises that they've posted in Scotsnet - hence most of the responses being from a Scottish perspective.

Labour, because it's the right thing to do for the majority.
Fat cats can afford to sort themselves out.

Whoops missed the scotsnet board. I'm england.

@prettybird hi i was aware I'd posted on scotnet as I was interested to hear from business owners as I'm in Scotland and snp rule up here. Also interested to hear from bus owners south of the border too

@prettybird no the snp business rates relief was for a select few only and I don't actually know anyone who applied and was accepted for this. More like a token advert for something you can apply for but most people don't actually get. Sounds great in principle though. Thats one of the many reasons why in Scotland snp are not popular with business owners.

Interesting. That's not my db's experience (and he's not particularly an SNP fan). He said it made a big difference to him. His business probably comes in to the micro business category.

@prettybird also have a micro business but there were only a few select businesses who got the token. I'm a huge networker and yet to meet anyone who successfully received it. I know a few people did though

Definitely would not consider db to be one of "a select few" - although there again, db is good at accessing whatever he thinks he is due.

Maybe it's to do with the council area. He's in Glasgow and has a hate relationship with Land Services/the council, so it's not that he's "in" with the council - but maybe he was just fortunate in his application.

Labour because Brexit is a disaster for our company and Labour is the tactical vote in our constituency. Not a massive fan of Corbyn tbh but he won’t get a majority / he’ll have to work with others