For decades the Conservatives have styled themselves as the natural party of business. But now, as Boris Johnson stretches the relationship to breaking point, senior Labour figures believe their party has a historic opportunity to win that moniker.
Launching a report in Manchester on Friday backed by the shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, the affiliate group Labour Business said the party could “seize the moment” to win over company bosses before the next election.
Business leaders have lost patience with the prime minister as the Tory party descends into infighting, with Johnson seen as an electoral liability by prominent City backers after Partygate and running out of ideas on the economy. Relations have struggled to recover from Johnson’s reported “fuck business” retort over employer concerns about a hard Brexit.
Labour Business, launched 50 years ago by Harold Wilson, argues that the party won past elections with a pro-business platform and should reclaim a proud tradition of backing enterprise that stretches back to Wilson’s 1963 “white heat of technology” speech.
“There is a Wilsonian moment for the Labour party to seize,” it said in the report. “By showing an understanding of the future, Wilson was able to gain the trust of the public and put into sharp focus a tired Conservative government running out of ideas.”
Urging the party to talk up an enterprise-led economic recovery – while supporting workers, society and the environment – it said the Tories’ tarnished credibility would allow Labour to step in an engage more with the private sector.
The group suggested most businesses were adopting more socially responsible positions on a range of issues – including the environment, diversity, and supporting the communities they operate in – bringing them closer to Labour at a time when senior rightwing figures have hit out at “woke capitalism”.
Reynolds said Labour was at its best when it had a powerful and persuasive narrative on the role of business in society. “When we can speak with conviction about the future of business, Labour wins elections. When we ignore or do down the potential of business, we lose elections,” he said. “Our party has a historic opportunity at the next election to frame a vision for a new partnership with British business.”
Labour Business said the party needed to send a clear message that a strong recovery depends on enterprise, not just the state, with policies on tax reform to reward firms that embed social and environmental purpose in their business model. It said the government could link public-sector contracts with social value, and look at what incentives could be offered to firms that share more control with their workers and the communities they operate within.
Hamish Sandison, the chair of Labour Business, said: “Labour can bust the myth that the Conservatives are the party of business, and reaffirm the reality, which is that Labour is the true party of business, a party which is unashamedly pro-business as well as pro-worker, committed to a true partnership of government, businesses, workers and their trade unions.”
