Billionaire John Caudwell built Phones4u into one of Britain's biggest mobile phone retailers before selling it for almost £1.5 billion in 2006. He has since committed to giving 70 per cent of his wealth to charity.
In a special edition of The Inside Brief recorded at his estate in the South of France, Mr Caudwell speaks to Manus Cranny with characteristic directness about British politics, the economy, AI and what drives him.
Mr Caudwell says he switched his support to Labour before the 2024 general election for two reasons: the Conservatives had made a hash of things for so long that he had lost confidence in them, and Labour was pushing hard on GDP growth and support for business.
He had meetings with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but failed to influence them. The two Labour budgets since, he argues, have been business-unfriendly and counterproductive. Soaking the rich, he says, ultimately drags the economy down and makes the poor worse off in the long term, because the wealth needed to fund public services is not being created.
On Andy Burnham, the man tipped to succeed Mr Starmer as prime minister, Mr Caudwell warns against further instability and the risk of a bigger shift to the left. On Nigel Farage and Reform, currently ahead in the polls, he agrees with much of their economic thinking but says he cannot support a party he regards as climate sceptic, and one he fears could bring the kind of divisiveness he associates with the current US administration.
On AI, Mr Caudwell says it is both terrifying and exciting. He uses ChatGPT, argues with it and says he always wins. But he warns of a tsunami of young unemployed people as AI replaces jobs, and he worries about a generation growing up unable to tell what is real from what is fabricated.
On wealth creation, his advice to the next generation is straightforward: it has to be internet-based, it has to have a worldwide application, and you need ambition, drive, passion, resilience, commercial intellect and, if you want to build at scale, leadership.
The conversation was recorded at Domaine de la Belle Etoile, the estate surrounding Le Provencal, the French Riviera hotel Mr Caudwell bought in 2014 and has spent more than a decade restoring. Apartments at the former hotel are priced from £4 million to £40 million.
