Claim ebce1a1eChecked 09 Jul 2026
Partly True/FalseOn the truth scale
“It doesn’t matter to the City any more whether it’s Tory or Labour.”
Interpreted asmetonymy
“It doesn’t matter to the City of London any more whether the government is Conservative or Labour.”
Reasoning & Evidence09 Jul 2026
There was some truth to the idea that City interests had become less tied to a single party: parliamentary evidence later described both major parties in office as “magnets for City money” and said that an obsession with “light touch” regulation had united both front benches for many years. But the claim is too absolute, because in 2011 reporting based on Electoral Commission and Companies House data found that more than half of Conservative Party donations since the 2010 election came from finance, and that City donations made up 51.4% of Conservative central office funds. That shows party allegiance still mattered to the City, even if policy positions had converged. Sources: UK Parliament, House of Commons Banking Standards evidence; The Guardian, “City's influence over Conservatives laid bare by research into donations.”
From article
Well, I’m Cavalier by instinct and by lifestyle. I mean, I don’t like Roundheads. You know, you can be Christian and fun or you can be Christian and, like Cromwell, be deeply puritanical and want to control everybody. So, yes, the Civil War is terribly important but I accept that there is a minor conflict in my mind on it.
Ultimately, the importance of the Civil War and the republic and what happened in the 1680s is that we put together, I think, a constitutional settlement as good as anything in the world, really. We had a system of government that we all understood. We all understood. OK, there wasn’t full emancipation, but from then on general elections really mattered. And my argument is that since [Britain joined the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union, in] 19732The year that Edward Heath’s government took Britain into what was then the European Economic Community that has gradually been diminishing, to the point now where it doesn’t really make any difference who’s in No 10. I mean, it doesn’t matter to the City any more whether it’s Tory or Labour.
Sources opened+ 85 search hits considered
| [1] | theguardian.com |
| [2] | tandfonline.com |
| [3] | publications.parliament.uk |