One of the key audiences that the prime minister and the chancellor will have to convince at this year’s Labour conference are the business leaders they targeted with a charm offensive before the election last July.<\/p>\n
The party trumpeted itself as “the natural party of business” and Rachel Reeves told anyone and everyone that this would be “the most pro-business government this country has ever seen”.<\/p>\n
Labour had some big business beasts backing them. Billionaire mobile phone tycoon John Caudwell – a long-time Conservative supporter – switched his backing to Labour<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some 120 business leaders signed a letter which read: “We, as leaders and investors in British business, believe that it is time for a change. For too long now, our economy has been beset by instability, stagnation, and a lack of long-term focus.<\/p>\n “Labour has shown it has changed and wants to work with business to achieve the UK’s full economic potential.”<\/p>\n But post-election, the party sent a different message – warning of tough choices and hard times ahead, and delivered a Budget to prove it. <\/p>\n That Budget, says John Caudwell, with its \u00a325bn rise in employers’ National Insurance, undid a lot of the goodwill the chancellor had garnered.<\/p>\n “I think there was a desperate loss of faith from the business community in general from the last Budget,” he says. “I think people were shocked at the level of negative components for businesses.”<\/p>\n