British PM seeks to strengthen UK business links amid crisis

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sought to repair the government’s tarnished economic record on Monday, reaching out to the business community rocked by a scandal engulfing the Confederation of British Industry.

Sunak’s Conservatives and the main opposition Labour party are jockeying for position ahead of a general election expected next year.

The Tories, traditionally regarded as the party of business, have lost ground in a cost-of-living crisis as inflation stays high -- and after former premier Liz Truss sparked markets chaos with unfunded tax cuts last year.

“We are going to keep engaging to make (Britain) the most pro-business, pro-growth country in the world,” Sunak said in an address that was broadcast on social networking site LinkedIn.

Sunak, who was UK finance minister before leading the country, said his “Business Connect” platform would enable companies to engage directly with his administration.

The news comes as a small number of high-profile firms withdrew from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Friday after the nation’s business lobby was shaken by fresh rape allegations.

Current finance minister Jeremy Hunt, addressing Monday’s gathering of chief executives and other business heads, said the government was “very concerned about the allegations of what’s happened at the CBI.

“They are very, very serious.” He added: “It is not for us to decide who business wants to engage with but we are not going to wait for a reincarnation of the CBI or whoever, we want to engage the whole time, every week, every day, with business.”

Business Connect will look to boost economic growth, Sunak insisted Monday before an audience of more than 200 high-profile business figures.

The UK remains plagued by double-digit inflation, prompting calls from many employers for the government to do more to stimulate economic output.

Hospitality, retail and tourism chiefs are calling for Sunak to reinstate tax-free shopping for tourists, a perk ended by Brexit.

Monday’s event focused partly on growth sectors including advanced manufacturing, life sciences and technology.

“Business Connect provides the next fantastic opportunity to demonstrate how we are growing the economy,” insisted Sunak.

However, Labour slammed the announcement and accused the government of mismanaging the economy.

“After 13 years, the pattern of Tory economic failure is grinding on,” said finance spokesman Pat McFadden.

“Families in Britain are being harder hit by price rises than many comparable economies.”

The Conservatives have been in power since 2010, including an initial five years in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

They won power following the global financial crisis and quickly introduced austerity measures aimed at stabilising the UK economy.

But the Tories massively loosened the purse strings a decade later as Covid struck, spending vast sums on saving businesses and jobs during economically-painful lockdowns.

Monday’s initiative comes as the business community reels from recent events at the CBI, which earlier this month sacked its director-general Tony Danker after allegations of misconduct.

Danker is not linked, however, to reports of two allegations of rape said to have involved staff at the lobby group.

The CBI on Friday decided to suspend all activity until an extraordinary general meeting in June.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands and Britain plan to build what would be Europe’s biggest cross-border electricity link connected to an offshore wind farm, their energy ministers said on Monday, part of efforts to boost energy security.

The “LionLink” interconnector will be able to transfer 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of power to Britain from a Dutch wind farm, or the same volume of electricity produced in Britain to the Netherlands, they said in a statement ahead of a leaders summit on energy in Ostend, Belgium.

The link, being developed by Britain’s National Grid and Dutch electricity network operator TenneT, will move enough surplus power between the countries to power the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland, or the British cities of Birmingham and Manchester combined, the ministers said, without specifying the route of the cable.

“This new connection further boosts energy security and energy independence in Europe,” Dutch Energy Minister Rob Jetten said in a statement.

Britain’s energy minister Grant Schapps said the countries were “sending a strong signal to Putin’s Russia that the days of his dominance over global power markets are well and truly over.”

Britain and the Netherlands currently have one power interconnector, the 1GW BritNed link.

The new project is part of a broader pledge the governments of nine countries around the North Sea will make on Monday, to develop renewable energy in the region as they strive to avoid a repeat of their over-dependence on a single foreign source like Russia. The countries’ leaders will commit to rapidly building wind farms and developing energy “islands”, or connected offshore green power generation sites, according to a draft of their summit declaration seen by Reuters.

Agencies