Moaning Minnie Millionaires

John Prescott writes:

You know when the ­Conservatives are worried about losing – Cameron and Osborne get their pals in business to launch kamikaze attacks on Labour and its leader.

But it was more Tory! Tory! Tory! than Tora! Tora! Tora! as the businessmen were exposed as Conservative peers, donors and knights whose business and personal interests are threatened by Miliband.

Sir Ian Cheshire is a member of the PM’s business taskforce.

Sir Nigel Rudd is a Tory party donor.

And ex M&S boss Sir Stuart Rose is not only a Tory lord, but also an adviser to Bridgepoint Capital – a firm with substantial private healthcare ­interests, including Care UK, which runs part of the failing NHS 111 service.

No wonder he doesn’t want Labour in – his bosses will make less with our plans to put NHS 111 under ambulance trust control.

All three and many other ­businessmen who attacked Labour last week also signed a letter in April 2010 backing Osborne’s call to stop an increase in National ­Insurance – the very tax that helps fund our NHS.

It’s no surprise these so-called captains of industry are scared that under Prime Minister ­Miliband it won’t be their business as usual.

Ed’s threat to reform banks and bonuses paid by the taxpayer upset the banking bosses. The proposal for a Mansion Tax on homes worth over £2million has got these millionaires moaning.

Ed’s call for a public inquiry on phone-hacking angered right-wing ­newspapers who now line up to attack him.

And his decision to force energy giants to freeze prices has shamed them into cutting bills. The Tories may mock him but, by God, Miliband has got balls. And I don’t just mean Ed Balls. The Tory ­businessmen hate that.

Stuart Rose defended Boots’ Italian tax-exile chief executive Stefano Pessina, saying he has a right to express his view that a Labour government would be a “catastrophe”.

Pessina couldn’t name one policy he hated and Boots has earned  massive revenue from Labour’s National Health Service prescriptions and ­partnerships.

UK Chamber of Shipping’s President Marcus Bowman joined in the ­criticism of Labour. But we ­introduced a tax break that rejuvenated our shipping industry.

That was hardly a ­catastrophe.

Under Labour, ­businesses had the longest period of economic growth since the war.

We also helped to deliver low interest rates, cut the deficit and the national debt before the banking crisis and built schools and hospitals.

So when ­businessmen moan about the ­Government and taxes, I quote a US senator called Elizabeth Warren.

She said: “There’s nobody in this country who got rich on their own. You built a factory out there – good for you!

“But you moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. And you were safe in your factory because of police and fire forces that we paid for.

“You built a factory and it turned into something terrific. God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is that you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

From freezing business rates, boosting apprenticeships and increasing the minimum wage, Labour wants to help that next kid.

And it’s damn well time moaning minnie businessmen realise it’s about helping others, not just themselves.