{"id":193047,"date":"2025-10-11T15:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T15:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/193047\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T15:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T15:29:07","slug":"reeves-pressures-business-chiefs-to-talk-up-the-uk-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/193047\/","title":{"rendered":"Reeves &#8216;pressures business chiefs to talk up the UK economy&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tSaturday 11 October 2025 10:20 am<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tSaturday 11 October 2025 1:34 pm\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tShare<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tX\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Twitter\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tLinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on LinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tWhatsApp\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on WhatsApp\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tEmail\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Email\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><img width=\"742\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2195927748-1-e1744814574953.jpg\" class=\"media \" alt=\"Reeves has called for businesses to talk more positively about the UK economy.\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t\tReeves has called for businesses to talk more positively about the UK economy.\t<\/p>\n<p>Rachel Reeves has ramped up pressure on business leaders to \u201ctalk up\u201d the economy in the run up to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/autumn-budget-window-is-closing-on-labours-growth-mission\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Autumn Budget.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Chancellor has framed her rallying cry to businesses that if they do not support a positive narrative around the economy, they risk Nigel Farage becoming Prime Minister.<\/p>\n<p>The Treasury has warned top business leaders that further economic gloom would only bolster Reform UK\u2019s standing, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/737c1ddd-6db4-4655-ac41-46ccb1d924ee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Financial Times.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Just this week the latest monthly\u00a0City AM\/Freshwater Strategy poll showed Nigel Farage\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/reform-uk-kent-local-authority-poised-to-hike-council-tax\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Reform UK<\/a>\u00a0gaining two points in voter share since September, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/reform-extends-lead-as-starmer-approval-ratings-remain-worst-in-uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">hitting 35 per cent, whilst Labour trailed at 20 per cent.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One business leader told the FT: \u201cWe\u2019ve been told that if you want to talk down the economy it will only help Reform, and do you want that as the alternative?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new calls come despite both Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer being accused of talking down the economy in the months following the 2024 election, where the government said parts of Britain were \u201cbroken\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Labour officials have warned that a Reform government undermine economic instability with attacks on the Bank of England and eroding Starmer\u2019s new ties with the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/reeves-to-scrap-two-child-benefit-cap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Reeves to scrap two-child benefit cap<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But Reform has been courting business figures in recent months, hoping their low spending and tax policies would garner favour.<\/p>\n<p>Reeves\u2019 tax raids hit business confidence<\/p>\n<p>The calls from Reeves to businesses come after many industry leaders have lambasted Labour for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/business-confidence-plumbs-new-depths-ahead-of-budget\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">denting confidence<\/a> after the 2024 Autumn Budget.<\/p>\n<p>The Chancellor\u2019s tax raid on businesses through the hike to employer\u2019s national insurance contributions has marked a major headache for firms across the country.<\/p>\n<p>A new survey by The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/people-and-organizations\/icaew\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ICAEW<\/a>) this week showed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/business-confidence-slumps-to-three-year-low-as-tax-fears-quash-risk-taking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">business confidence sank to its lowest in three years as tax fears weighed.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers at the trade body said it was striking that six in ten businesses claimed the tax burden to be a \u201cgrowing concern\u201d as levels hit another historic high following a ten-fold rise over the last five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the Treasury has attempted to prove their favour with the City over the last month through sharing videos of JP Morgan\u2019s Europe chief branding the UK as an \u201cincreasingly attractive\u201d place to allocate capital and and distributing comments from Microsoft president Brad Smith calling the UK a \u201cforce for stability in an uncertain world\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/kemi-badenoch-pledges-golden-rule-to-cut-deficit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Kemi Badenoch pledges \u2018golden rule\u2019 to cut deficit<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\tSimilarly tagged content: <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tSections\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tCategories\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPeople &amp; Organisations\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday 11 October 2025 10:20 am \u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0 Saturday 11 October 2025 1:34 pm Share Facebook Share on Facebook&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[458,84483,84,71324,4229,1294,2923,84484,84485,420,1634,84486,84487,2053,12168,50,633,229,1445,51544,70,56,84488,1893,735,54,55],"class_list":["post-193047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-budget","tag-budget-2024","tag-business","tag-business-confidence","tag-economics","tag-economy","tag-growth","tag-growth-agenda","tag-jp-morgan","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour","tag-labour-arty","tag-labour-budget","tag-labour-party","tag-national-insurance","tag-news","tag-nigel-farage","tag-politics","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-reeves","tag-reform-uk","tag-uk","tag-uk-business-confidence","tag-uk-economy","tag-uk-government","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}