Contractors would abandon Labour at a General Election

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Contractors would abandon Labour at a General Election

Published on Sep 26, 2008 |

A recent survey of 700 contractors revealed that virtually none of them would consider voting for Labour if a General Election was called tomorrow.

The survey, released by accountancy firm Brookson this week, also showed that over 90% of those polled thought that this government does not value professional contractors, and doesn't understand the fundamental differences between highly skilled professionals and less qualified "temps".

There is little love lost between most contractors and the current Government, who after all introduced IR35 within years of the 1997 election, but to poll under 2% in such a poll is staggering. 67.7% said they would vote Conservative, 13.6% would vote for the Lib Dems, and 16.8% would vote for smaller parties.

Martin Hesketh, Brookson's MD, said:

"Contractors in this country have seen some significant shifts in the legislation that governs the way they run their businesses in recent years, causing a great deal of confusion, upheaval and, in some cases, expense. For this reason, it is not surprising that there is some concern on how the current government views this vital part of the economy.

"Contractors provide an invaluable source of highly skilled workers to the UK economy in important sectors such as aerospace, oil and gas, defense and nuclear energy. However, the Government appears to bracket them the same as office temps. They are fundamentally different and the Government must recognise this in order to win this section of the electorate back. Some of the recent legislation changes, such as last year's MSC legislation, were brought in to address the issue of disguised employees within an organisation and the lost tax revenue as a result. However, modest estimates suggest that there are hundreds of thousands of highly skilled contractors in the UK, who genuinely want to work flexibly, and have been caught up in the changes and faced difficulties as a result.

"Our survey suggests that the Government must now demonstrate an improved understanding of the sector before introducing further legislation or face a backlash. It has the perfect opportunity to do this during the current consultation period covering the tax relief on travel expenses for contractors working through umbrella companies."