The signatory, a business owner who attended a roundtable with a Labour frontbencher ahead of the election, added: “You think you’ve met the people. They’ve looked you in the eye, and said they’re all for growth, these things are really important, and they’ve listened to you. Then the first thing that happens as soon as they come in is it’s the complete opposite.”
Small business, big numbers
Spying an opening, Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch has been using her weekly questions to Prime Minister Keir Starmer to highlight concerns about Labour’s “jobs tax.”
Meanwhile, Reform MP Richard Tice — deputy to Farage in the insurgent right-wing movement — has accused the government of creating a “hostile environment for family businesses.”
“It’s pretty much a race between the Tories and Reform to grab [small business votes] off of Labour,” said James Frayne, founding partner of policy research agency Public First.
Tory strategists say Badenoch is now making a deliberate effort to listen to businesses on weekly visits around the country, as she tries to reverse her party’s fortunes following a historic election kicking.
“You will see that as a party we want to be allied closer to the entrepreneurs, the business owners, the businesses, the people who take risks,” explained one strategist, who was not authorized to speak on the record. He also pointed to the appointments of Mel Stride and Andrew Griffith as shadow chancellor and shadow business and trade secretary, respectively, as a “concerted decision.”