Iceland boss Richard Walker has resigned from the Conservative party as he accused the party of becoming out of touch with business.
Walker, who started the process of seeking election as a Tory MP last year, has now removed his name from their list of approved parliamentary candidates and cancelled his Conservative party membership.
The Iceland boss wrote in The Guardian: “The Conservative party has drifted badly out of touch with business and the economy, and with the everyday needs of the British people.
“Indeed, many lifelong Tories I know now find it hard to disagree that the country is in a considerably worse state than it was when their party returned to power 13 years ago.”
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Walker, who is also a Tory party donor alongside father Malcolm, was particularly concerned by prime minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to U-turn on net zero targets last week.
The Iceland boss, who has pioneered many sustainable initiatives at the supermarket and has catalysed change across grocery, said that it was clear he would need to adjust his principles and values if he were to become an MP.
“I was never prepared to wear a gag to bag a seat – and I am certainly not willing to make compromises with a party which has clearly lost its way on its approach to net zero and the environment in particular.
“It is plain that the prime minister has no real interest in green issues.”
Walker said the UK was in need of both stability and certainty and the government’s “constant changes of direction and failures to make decisions are actively undermining this”.
1 Comment. Leave new
I hope he was going to resign from Iceland before he became a Conservative Party candidate. As in my opinion you cannot run and work for a company and be a perspective member of parliament.