Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to make the next Labour government the UK’s most “pro-business” government in history.
Speaking to the Times, Reeves promised that business groups would be “in the room” to ensure Labour met its “mission” to make the UK the fastest growing economy in the G7.
“If I become chancellor, the next Labour government is going to be the most pro-business government this country has ever seen,” she said.
“More pro-business than Tony Blair’s administration, because I genuinely believe the way to improve living standards and to achieve our potential is by unlocking private business investment.”
Reeves was speaking ahead of the first meeting of the task force set up to advise on its new national wealth fund.
The task force includes leading business figures, like former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and Barclays boss CS Venkatakrishnan, and aims to crowd in private sector investment into new and risky green technologies.
Labour will commit £7.3bn of public sector funding with the aim of attracting a further £22bn in private investment.
Reeves said the government would be a “backstop” for investments in risky and expensive technologies. “To get people to invest to produce green hydrogen, they need to know at the end they can sell it,” she said.
“So the role of the government in that sector might be to say, ‘You produce it and we will guarantee that it will be purchased’. We will be the backstop to that.”
The emphasis on private sector investment comes after Labour dropped its pledge to invest £28bn in green projects, citing the constrained fiscal position.
Reeves said the government would work closely with business across all sectors of the economy to help unlock private sector investment across the economy.
“Our No 1 mission is to grow the economy,” she said. “We’re not going to grow the economy by having the best civil servants and the best ministers involved. We’re going to grow the economy by understanding business.”
“The people who understand best what it takes to unlock business investment are businesses, and so that’s why I want them in the room to help me make these decisions. If you can’t get a grid connection, no one’s going to build the wind farm.”
