Iceland supermarket boss switches allegiance from Tories to Labour
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The boss of Iceland, the supermarket chain, has switched his allegiance to Labour and said Sir Keir Starmer’s party is the “right choice” for businesses.
Richard Walker, a former Tory donor who once hoped to stand as an MP, announced last October that he had quit the Conservative Party.
He has switched his support to Labour, writing in The Guardian that “after a lot of soul-searching” he had decided the party “is the right choice for the communities across the country where Iceland operates – and the right choice for everyone in business who wants to see this country grow and prosper”.
Mr Walker, 43, praised Sir Keir for his “compassion and concern for the less fortunate that contrasts very favourably with the attitude of his opponents”, saying he felt “sure that Starmer has exactly what it takes to be a great leader”.
He praised the way in which Sir Keir had “transformed” Labour “by ruthlessly excising the Corbynite extremism that made Labour unelectable in 2019”.
He also contrasted Labour’s approach to net zero with that of the Conservatives, claiming that its green prosperity plan “demonstrates that it gets the need to transition fast and fairly”.
Mr Walker, a member of Greenpeace since 2006, has long been vocal on environmental issues, citing the Tories’ approach to net zero as a key factor in his decision to quit the party.
On Monday, he accused the Tories of abandoning “basic Conservative principles” which “has not only fuelled my personal disenchantment, it is also reflected in the total collapse of public confidence we can see in every opinion poll”.
He said: “Labour under Keir Starmer has progressively moved towards the ground on which I have always stood, at the same time as the Conservatives have moved away from it.”
The supermarket boss is not joining Labour as a member, saying he wanted to be able to continue to “speak out without fear or favour”.
Sir Keir, expected to visit an Iceland branch on Monday afternoon to meet staff and shoppers, welcomed the endorsement, saying: “The work that he and his colleagues at Iceland have done to help customers through the cost of living crisis has been commendable.
“With Labour, shoppers and shop workers will get a fair deal. We’ll tackle the cost of living crisis, get Britain’s economy growing again and get our country’s future back.”
In 2022, Mr Walker announced his bid to stand as a Tory MP. He had been on the approved candidate list for the Conservatives, but said last year that he was “never prepared to wear a gag to bag a seat”.
When announcing that he was quitting the Conservatives last October, he accused the party of having drifted “badly out of touch”, but speaking on BBC Breakfast, he confirmed that he would not be trying to stand as a Labour MP.
It comes ahead of a major Labour business conference in London on Thursday, which is set to welcome more than 500 corporate bosses.
