Andy Burnham will step up engagement with business this week, hosting a speed dating-style reception in Downing Street with executives fearful of tax rises in the Budget and keen to know more about his plans for the UK economy.
The prime minister is expected to appear at three separate meetings at Number 10 on Tuesday morning with tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, the heads of large FTSE companies and business lobby groups, people familiar with the matter told the FT.
Two people due to attend told the FT they were concerned the format of the reception meant there would not be meaningful engagement on issues.
Another person who accepted the invitation said: “All the signs remain that they want to look and sound supportive to business.”
The reception, arranged in part to make up for an event with businesses that Burnham missed last month following the death of his father, will come after chancellor John Healey hosts retail and hospitality leaders for a breakfast roundtable next door at Number 11.
Attendees at the Treasury event will be able to discuss “the opportunities and challenges facing business and what is needed to unlock investment, boost productivity and support sustainable growth across the UK”, according to an invitation seen by the FT.
The scheduled events in Downing Street follow complaints from business leaders that Burnham and Healey offered little reassurance about the October 28 Budget at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool.
The pair used set-piece speeches and private events to make reference to the “cost of business” and Healey pledged that the government would “do our bit to remove the barriers [and] reduce the regulation where we can”.
But many chief executives who attended the Liverpool event said that they remained in the dark about potential tax rises and wanted more detail on Burnham’s “theory for growth” and his description of himself as “pro-business”.
Healey last week met representatives of the UK’s domestic banks, including Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, Nationwide and Santander, amid speculation he could impose higher taxes on the sector to help fill a fiscal hole caused by higher borrowing costs and new spending pressures, such as defence.
The chancellor told the meeting the UK was facing a “challenging fiscal picture” but stopped short of providing guidance on whether taxes on banks would go up in the Budget. The banks raised concerns that higher taxes would hurt lending to small businesses, raise the cost of capital and have a negative effect on growth.
One bank executive at the meeting said higher taxes on domestic banks would be “self-defeating”, while HSBC raised the spectre of further activist investors if the UK was seen to be less competitive.
Lord Jim O’Neill, an informal adviser to Burnham and a former government minister, told the FT last week that Healey should avoid damaging business with Budget tax rises and instead accept an “emergency” cut in his fiscal buffer to deal with the fallout of the Iran war.
Meanwhile, business groups, including TheCityUK, UK Finance, the CBI and AFME, warned the Treasury in a letter on Friday that higher taxes on the financial services sector would hurt the UK’s international competitiveness.
Healey’s meeting with retail and hospitality chiefs has been billed as part of a “business breakfast series” and two more pre-Budget briefings are scheduled with representatives from the automotive industry and on the subject of AI.