labour rounded on more than 100 of britain's top business leaders today after they backed the conservatives' economic plan and urged voters not to risk a 'change of course' in a highly unusual intervention just weeks from the general election, the business chiefs claimed a labour government would 'put the recovery at risk' but ed miliband said the letter was not a surprise and only showed that the tories were on the side of 'a few big firms and individuals at the top' shadow business secretary chuka umunna, meanwhile, dismissed the signatories as a 'cosy little club', while labour peer john precott went further criticising them as 'tax dodgers, tory voters and non doms' scroll down for video  bosses behind big name retailers, drinks and restaurants have backed the tory economic plan, including (top row) primark and costa, (middle row)  and lk bennett, (bottom row) ladbrokes, cobra, tango and iceland  david cameron, however, insisted the intervention was 'unprecedented' and claimed it sent a 'very powerful message' the business chiefs who signed the letter run companies with well known retail brands such as primark, iceland, ladbrokes and costa coffee executives at consumer brands such as cobra beer, britvic, silver spoon, kingsmill, thorntons, robinsons, tango and london pride are also on the list embarrassingly for labour, the list of business chiefs includes several who supported the governments of tony blair and gordon brown however, mr miliband said the letter only served to expose the choice at the election he said: 'businesses have come out today to say they want lower business taxes and, you know, that doesn't surprise me 'but it does also go to the wider choice at this election the conservatives really believe that if all of the few corporations and individuals at the top are doing well, the wealth will magically trickle down for everybody else 'we have tried that experiment over the last few years and it hasn't worked we have seen falling living standards and falling wages and insecurity at work i just have a different view about the way the country succeeds' mr umunna went further dismissed it as a 'letter organised by the conservative party in a conservative supporting newspaper' after it was first published in the daily telegraph but mr cameron, touring marston's brewery in the wolverhampton today, said the letter from business leaders was 'very powerful' david cameron and george osborne visited marston's brewery in wolverhampton today on the second full day of the general election campaign  mr cameron said the letter from business leaders was 'very powerful' while the chancellor claimed it was 'unprecedented' tory officials said the number of signatories to the open letter (above) made it 'unprecedented' in the history of british general elections  he said: 'today it is an unprecedented intervention by some of the business leaders in the best known business, large and small, in our country saying the conservative long term plan is working, generating jobs 'that is a very clear message from business leaders who, like me, care about jobs and wealth creation and prosperity and livelihoods in our country' chancellor george osborne added: 'the warning from britain's business leaders couldn't be clearer: a change of course will threaten jobs, deter investment, send a negative signal about our country and put the recovery at risk' deputy pm nick clegg said the letter was a tribute to the work of the coalition government, and claimed an outright tory win would ‘pose a very real threat’ to britain’s stability the lib dem leader said yesterday: ‘i read the letter carefully, it talks about what this coalition government has done, and i think the signatories to the letter are completely right in saying that about the last thing that this country needs, now that we’re emerging from this long shadow of the economic crash in 2008, is a great lurch in one direction or another' however, the lib dem business secretary vince cable said the signatories were 'not exactly representative' of the business community and should 'be careful what they wish for', accusing some of signing up 'naively' to a tory stunt the business leaders were particularly positive about mr osborne's strategy of seeking to encourage investment by slashing corporation tax, which fell to 20 per cent this week, having stood at 28 per cent when the government came to power in 2010 'david cameron and george osborne's flagship policy of progressively lowering corporation tax to 20 per cent has been very important in showing the uk is open for business it has been a key part of their economic plan,' the business leaders said in the letter 'the result is that britain grew faster than any other major economy last year and businesses like ours have created over 185million new jobs' the list of signatories includes senior executives of nine ftse 100 companies it includes senior figures such as peter grauer, chairman of bloomberg the list includes five signatories who previously supported new labour including sir charles dunstone, chairman of dixons carphone and talk talk, who signed a letter backing the party before the 2005 election dragons' den star duncan bannatyne, who unveiled a 'seaside manifesto' with gordon brown before the 2010 general election, is also a signatory ed miliband, speaking at engineering company david brown gear systems in huddersfield today, provoked another row with business by proposing further restrictions on zero hours contracts  the labour leader took a selfie taken with a worker as he arrives for a q&a session at the factory in huddersfield  former marks & spencer chief stuart rose warned last night the labour's plan to raise corporation tax would 'choke off the recovery' ed balls yesterday confirmed labour will raise corporation tax for the first time in 40 years, despite warnings it could cost more than 100,000 jobs the cash will be used to fund a £400 cut in business rates for smaller firms but lord rose said: 'the more i hear from labour, the more concerned i become they don't get business 'labour talk a lot about spending money – but what about earning it? ed miliband and ed balls seem intent on pitting small businesses against large businesses, saddling the engine rooms of our country with higher corporation taxes and crippling entrepreneurs – all of which would choke off the recovery' 1 rooney anand ceo, greene king  2 surinder arora md, arora international  3 john ayton founder of bremont watches  4 alex baldock ceo shop direct  5 lord bamford chairman, jcb  6 duncan bannatyne founder, bannatyne group  7 robert bensoussan ceo, lk bennett  8 lord karan bilimoria chairman and founder, cobra beer  9 charlie bradshaw md, matrix apa  10 baroness brady vicechairman, west ham  11 graham chipchase ceo, rexam  12 zameer choudrey ceo, bestway group  13 neil clifford ceo, kurt geiger  14 steven cohen ceo, blue inc 15 glenn cooper md, atg access  16 andrew coppel ceo, de vere  17 gerald corbett chairman, britvic  18 peter cullum founder and deputy chairman, towergate  19 ron dennis chairman, mclaren technology  20 julietta dexter owner, communications store  21 annoushka ducas founder, annoushka jewellery  22 bob dudley, ceo, bp  23 sir charles dunstone chairman, dixons carphone  24 john elliott chairman, ebac  25 mark esiri director, notonthehighstreetcom  26 ralph findlay ceo, marstons  27 richard glynn ceo, ladbrokes  28 ben gordon chairman, powerleague  29 julian granville md, boden  30 peter grauer chairman, bloomberg  31 philip green chairman, carillion  32 michael gutman president and coo, westfield  33 wendy hallet md and founder, hallet retail  34 jenny halpern prince founder, halpern  35 andy harrison ceo, whitbread  36 aidan heavey ceo, tullow oil  37 oliver hemsley founder and ceo, numis  38 joe henderson founder and ceo, henderson  39 vernon hill founder and chairman, metro bank  40 anya hindmarch chairman, anya hindmarch  41 brent hoberman founder, mydecocom  42 cassie hutchings ceo, gch capital  43 sir george iacobescu chairman and ceo, canary wharf  44 alan jackson, chairman, the restaurant group  45 peter jackson, former ceo, travelex  46 nick jenkins, founder, moonpigcom  47 neil johnson, chairman, e2v  48 luke johnson, chairman, risk capital  49 richard joseph, co founder, joseph joseph  50 ray kelvin founder and ceo, ted baker  51 nadir lalani founder and ceo, 99p stores  52 ben latham jones head of ealing studios  53 nick leslau chairman, prestbury investments  54 rhydian lewis ceo, ratesetter  55 james lipscombe md and co owner, the chesterford  56 derek lovelock, chairman, mamas and papas  57 ron mackintosh, chairman, csr  58 sir cameron mackintosh founder, cameron mackintosh  59 edward mellors, director, mellors  60 tom molnar ceo, bread  61 john morgan, ceo, morgan sindall  62 matt moulding, ceo, the hut group  63 stephen murphy, chairman, wyevale garden centres  64 jonathan neame ceo shepherd neame  65 john neill chairman and ceo, unipart  66 nick newbury, ceo, original travel  67 jonathan newhouse, chairman & ceo, conde nast international  68 richard nichols ceo, instinctif partners  69 mike norris, ceo computacenter  71 sir dick olver, former chairman bae systems  72 alan parker chairman, mothercare  73 tony pidgley chairman, berkeley group  74 thembalat ramachandran, ceo&md, bristol laboratories  75 nick robertson founder & ceo, asos  76 lord rose chairman, ocado  77 richard rose executive chairman, crawshaws  78 chrissie rucker founder, the white company  79 sir nigel rudd, chairman designate, meggitt  80 rakesh sharma ceo, ultra electronics  81 baroness shields chairman, tech city  82 jasminder singh chairman and ceo, edwardian group  83 rob templeman chairman, rac  84 tidjane thiam, group ceo, prudential  85 sarah thomson, founder and ceo, addictive points  86 simon townsend ceo, enterprise inns  87 michael turner chairman, fullers, smith & turner  88 moni varma, md and chairman, veetee rice  89 matthew vaughn owner, marv films  90 ollie vigors, md, longshot kids  91 robert walker chairman, travis perkins  92 malcolm walker founder, iceland  93 paul walsh chairman, compass  94 james wates chairman, wates  95 george weston ceo, associated british foods  96 nick wheeler founder, charles tyrwhitt  97 mike wheeler md, auto styling  98 charles wigoder executive chairman, telecom plus  99 paul wilkinson chairman,thorntons  100 will wyatt ceo, caledonia investments  101 sir hossein yassaie ceo, imagination technologies  102 steve varley chairman, uk&i, ey  103 richard baker, chairman, dfs 
david cameron ' ed miliband prescott tory
executives from companies with big brand names signed the open letter . declared government under david cameron 'has been good for business'. ed miliband said it only showed the pm backed his rich friends in the city . lord prescott said they were 'tax dodgers, tory voters and non doms'