HSBC - Election Lies Exposed

In the run-up to last month’s General Election, voters were being constantly fed the message that any Government with Mil The Younger as Prime Minister would mean job losses. The tide of comment to support this line was incessant. Moreover, one name cropped up again and again, that of banking giant HSBC. Labour would mean HSBC would be forced - against its will, poor thing - to up sticks and leave the UK.

The grovelingly Tory-supporting Telegraph was in the vanguard: “If Labour wins, HSBC exit could be first of many … HSBC, Britain's biggest bank, has announced that it may leave the UK following several increases in the bank levy and post-crisis regulatory changes. Here's why bashing business doesn't pay” they trumpeted. Stefano Pessina of Boots joined in, telling “Ed Miliband would be a 'catastrophe' for Britain”.

It got worse: City AM pulled a routine frightener by telling “The chief executive of Henderson Global Investors has warned that the UK's AAA credit rating would be under threat in the event of a Labour victory at the General Election”. The Express screamed “BRITAIN'S jobs miracle, which has seen the number in work hit a record 31 million, would be threatened by a Labour win on Thursday, the Institute of Directors warns”.

So, now that HSBC and its craven band of supporters have got the kind of Government they want, all those threats of job losses are a thing of the past, right? Yes, the threats are indeed a thing of the past, because what we have now is that job losses - to the tune of 8,000 across the UK - are a reality at HSBC. And those job losses did not just suddenly materialise: someone has known about this for some time.

The job cuts, which represent one in six HSBC posts in the UK, will be accompanied by widespread branch closures, some in areas where the nearest alternative bank is several miles away. Meanwhile, over at Boots, which also suggested that Labour meant job losses - and that voting Tory therefore didn’t - plans are going ahead for 700 job cuts, although these are “non-store” jobs, so that’s all right, then.

The excuses are enough to prompt deployment of a whole nanoviolin: HSBC pleads that the cost of doing business in the UK is all too much, something they managed to keep Schtum on before the poll. Boots, meanwhile, has gone Full Corporate Bullshit on reporters and announced that its own cuts are part of a “Transformation … in response to changing needs of customers and patients”. Yes, we made them do it!

This revelation that the press have been distinctly economical with the actualité did not impress Peter Jukes, who observed “Boots and HSBC job cuts, which @Telegraph reported would only happen if Miliband won election, happened anyway: can I get refund?” The man otherwise known as Mr Ceebs replied “how about those reporters stand and reveal their dishonest sources? Name and shame, live up to standards of Bloggers”.

Tory-supporting press lying to help an election effort? Well, knock me down with a feather.