By Mark Kleinman, City Editor, in Davos
One of Britain's most respected businessmen has rejected a call from David Cameron for companies to increase workers' wages on the back of the slump in oil prices.
Speaking to Sky News, Sir Roger Carr said the Prime Minister's request last week made little economic sense and was unlikely to be adopted.
Mr Cameron had called on companies to act to increase employees' pay in the wake of official figures showing that corporate profitability was at its highest since the late 1990s.
"Obviously I want to see that companies' success is passed through in terms of people seeing wage increases," he said.
"It has to be done in a way that is affordable, in a way that companies can continue to grow.
"The falling oil price is going to benefit a lot of businesses and a lot of countries. We want to see those benefits passed on in all the ways that they can be."
But Sir Roger, who chairs BAE Systems, the defence contractor, and who until last year was chairman of Centrica, the owner of British Gas, poured cold water on Mr Cameron's aspiration.
"What happens when the price of oil goes up? You can't have pay linked to commodity fluctuations," Sir Roger said at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
"You have to have pay levels which are fairly structured which acknowledges the value that is created at all levels of a company."
Sir Roger's remarks were echoed anonymously by a string of other British business leaders, one of whom accused the Prime Minister of "pandering to the looming election with crazy economic ideas".
The halving of the oil price since last summer has created a huge headache for oil and other natural resources groups but has been described as "a net positive for the economy of the UK" by Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England.
The General Election campaign will in part be framed around a fierce debate about the cost of living.
Politicians from all sides have exerted enormous pressure on the major energy retailers to cut prices following the fall in the price of wholesale gas.
Some have responded, but only with relatively modest price cuts for consumers.
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