Labour will ‘get under the bonnet’ of Britain’s growth problem, Starmer to say

Labour will “roll up our sleeves and get under the bonnet” to fix Britain’s stagnating growth problem, Sir Keir Starmer is set to tell hundreds of bosses at a landmark business summit.

The Labour party leader will unveil his plan for business at the high-powered event in the City on Thursday, set to be attended by 400 business leaders, including FTSE 100 CEOs.

Starmer, who will be in conversation with the National Grid boss, will cite his “guiding belief” when he took over in 2020 “not just that Labour could be the party of business, but that Labour should be the party of business, and now, four years on, Labour is the party of business”.

He will describe the “depth” of the transformation to the party’s relationship with business as “something I take immense pride in”, calling “your presence a testament to the changes”.

Starmer will unveil his plan for business to deliver growth and prosperity across the UK, titled ‘Labour’s Partnership with Business for Growth’.

It will set out the framework for partnership with business and its role in Labour’s five national missions.

“Today we launch this new plan, this new purpose, this new partnership with five priorities to unite behind,” he will tell C-suite attendees, set to include Google, AstraZenaca and Goldman Sachs.

“Five steps we can take together to begin our walk towards a Britain with its future back.”

He will outline steps to get the UK building, boost skills, making work pay for working people, backing British business and creating the economic conditions required for growth.

It underlines Labour’s key mission – to achieve the highest sustained growth in the G7 – as its central plank underpinning the focus of an incoming government, should they win power.

Rachel Reeves will also speak at the central London conference, where Iceland boss and former Conservative candidate hopeful Richard Walker will also be in the audience.

Earlier this week, Walker endorsed Starmer and Labour as “the right choice for everyone in business who wants to see this country grow and prosper”.

The party unveiled their plan for financial services in City A.M. on Wednesday, which saw it broadly aligned with the Conservative’s Mansion House pension reforms. However, former City minister Andrew Griffith hit out at the plan as “dog food lasagne”.

Commenting on the business day, chief secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott said: “Keir Starmer’s record of making promises and then dropping them when they become inconvenient shows Labour will not provide businesses with the stability and certainty they need to invest.

“Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives will stick to our plan that is providing business with the certainty they need to grow, create jobs and deliver more prosperity and security for Britain.”