Keir Starmer to promise ‘partnership with business’ if Labour wins power

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves sets out plans to fill £16bn investment gap for start-ups

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

Keir Starmer is making a further bid to woo the business vote for Labour, with the launch of a plan to close a £16bn “investment gap” in high-growth firms.

In a speech to a business audience in London’s Canary Wharf on Thursday, he will promise “an active partnership with business” if Labour wins power.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will accuse Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives of being willing to “manage decline” in the post-Brexit economy.

Labour would instead make the UK “the high-growth, start-up hub of the world” by backing the new industries of the future, she will promise.

Sir Keir recruited ex-Goldman Sachs chair and former Conservative minister Jim O’Neill to daw up the Start-Up Scale-Up review, amid indications that companies in countries like France are taking a growing share of investment cash from the UK.

Lord O’Neill’s report recommended: The removal of barriers to institutional investment in high-growth firms.

Measures to make innovation born in universities become a reality

Real independence for the British Business Bank to allow it to bring in more investment into the economy.

Welcoming the plan, Ms Reeves will say: “These are challenging economic times. But I know the spirit of enterprise, of creativity, of endeavour are as present in Britain today as they ever have been.

“We are at a post-Brexit crossroads. We can go down the road of managed decline, falling behind our competitors, or we can draw on bold thinking to propel us forward.

“That is why Labour today welcome this radical plan to make Britain the high growth, start-up hub of the world.

“Start-Up, Scale-Up provides crucial insights towards achieving one of the guiding ambitions of the next Labour government: to make Britain the best place to start, and to grow, a business. And it sends a powerful message: that Labour is back in business.”

In a further disappointment for Labour supporters of renewed membership of the EU, Ms Reeves will restate the party’s position that it will seek to improve Boris Johnson’s flawed Brexit deal, but will not attempt to take the UK back into the single market or customs union.

In a sign of increasing business interest in the implications of a possible Labour government, Starmer and Reeves are expected to be joined at the meeting by the CEOs of Aviva, SSE and HSBC, and the chair of Tesco.

Lord O’Neill, now sitting as an independent peer, said: “The more all political parties support the eco-system of start-ups for the UK, the more they become entwined in the DNA of policy thinking for the future.

“Leading this review has underlined the huge potential Britain’s start-ups have for changing our economic fortunes, especially in towns and cities outside of London.

“I welcome the shadow chancellor’s enthusiastic focus on this space and have been pleased to play a part in this review.”