Hargreaves Lansdown founder: Labour has ‘worst cabinet of all time’
The billionaire founder of Hargreaves Lansdown has said that the current Labour administration has the worst cabinet of all time and will “wreck the economy” over the course of a full term.
Peter Hargreaves, who set up the investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown from his bedroom in 1986, slammed the Labour government’s first six months in office, and suggested he could back Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Speaking to LBC, Hargreaves said that Keir Starmer had assembled “universally the worst cabinet of all time” and that he could not “see competency anywhere”.
Hargreaves is one of the UK’s most successful businessmen, with a net worth of at least £1.8bn having Hargreaves Lansdown into a £5bn business with roughly 2m customers. He retired from Hargreaves Lansdown in 2015, and is now chairman of the Blue Whale Growth Fund.
“What frightens me is the damage that the current government will do if in power for a full term,” Hargreaves, a former Conservative party donor who made headlines with a £1m contribution in 2019, said in a blistering intervention.
“They are universally the worst cabinet of all time. They have gone off half cocked without any thought of the ramifications of their shooting from the hip. I cannot see any competence anywhere. They will wreck the economy,” he added.
Hargreaves, a high profile business backer of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, also opened the door to switching allegiances to Reform from the Conservative Party if Farage’s insurgent outfit looked more likely to win the next election.
He said: “Which ever right-wing party that might oust them I would support.
“It’s too early to make a decision. Both the Conservatives and Reform parties would do a better job; that is if the Conservatives are now right wing.
“They have been socialist leaning under Cameron, May and Johnson. Not sure where Sunak fitted – he was just firefighting the terrible legacy created by the governments since 2000.”
The interview comes as the government tries to arrest the narrative that it has mismanaged the economy since coming into office in the summer.
A Labour Party spokesman said: “The Conservatives left a £22bn blackhole in the public finances and public services on their knees.
“It’s left to this Labour government to fix the mess created by the Tories and drive a decade of National Renewal.”
Hargreaves Lansdown declined to comment.