UK bosses need to stop “moaning and groaning and whinging” and start talking up Britain as a place to do business, the former boss of Legal & General has warned.
Speaking at the London Stock Exchange today, the longtime chief of Britain’s biggest insurer, Sir Nigel Wilson, claimed executives had let a negative narrative take hold of the UK and needed to take a more active role in championing it as a place to invest.
“We need to change the role of the chief executive and the major people so they’re not moaning and groaning and whinging, because that’s what’s happened and therefore the narrative is doom and gloom,” Wilson said.
“This is a great country with brilliant places to invest, and London’s the most exciting city in the world. We should be loud and proud about what we’ve got already and build on it for the future.”
Sir Nigel Wilson
Britain’s boss class are also not “outspoken enough and not engaged enough in politics”, he added.
Wilson himself has hinted at a potential move into the political arena after stepping down from the FTSE 100 insurer last year. As chief executive of L&G he made a number of high profile political interventions as a backer of Brexit and outspoken critic of the success of the government’s levelling-up policy.
His comments today came in conversation with the deputy chief of the London Stock Exchange, Charlie Walker, who took aim at the press for talking down the City and focusing on negative news.
“We’ve got incredible ingredients, world-leading universities, despite what you may read in the press,” Walker said. “The LSE last year had more capital raised on it than the next two European exchanges combined, which is a stat we keep giving to the press conference but they don’t seem to publish it.”
Walker asked Wilson, “are we too British about things, and we talk about the things that should get better rather than the positives of what we’ve already got?”
A negative media narrative has been a key gripe of the bourse in the past 12 months, with both the London Stock Exchange boss, Julia Hoggett, and LSEG chief, David Schwimmer, criticising the media’s presentation of the troubles facing the capital.
Schwimmer said last year that “anything that is seen as negative commentary about London as a financial centre has become kind of clickbait.”
However, the City has been thrown into crisis by a slump in new listings and fears over the health of the public markets. Just 23 firms floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2023, down from 45 in 2022, which itself was a 62 per cent drop on the record 119 listings in 2021.
A number of high profile executives have taken aim at their lagging share prices and the conservative approach of investors in the UK compared to the US.
Regulators and political figures have been on the offensive to reform the rules around London’s public markets and boost its appeal after a number of firms have either ditched their listings or floated in New York.