21st November 2017 – SME4Labour held a roundtable discussion in Parliament about how the Labour Party can beat the Tories on business and re-establish itself as the party of – and for – small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners and workers. The session was kindly hosted by Jack Dromey MP, Shadow Minister for Labour. Shadow Secretary of State for Business Bill Esterson MP joined Mr. Dromey for the session. Rehana Ameer, councillor in the City of London and an SME owner, kindly chaired the event, and our panel of speakers featured Hamish Sandison, chair of Labour Business, Simon Lydiard, former civil servant, and Emma Barnes, owner of Wild Fawn jewellery.
Jack Dromey MP celebrated that business is now talking to Labour again after some period of distance, both because of the uncertainties around Brexit and Labour’s impressive performance at the General Election, meaning Labour is perceived to be a government in waiting. He cautioned, though, that Labour needs to do more to win the business community’s full support.
Bill Esterson MP spoke about how La-bour is pro-business but against the type of “short-termist behaviour”, such as in the City, that has blighted the UK’s economy for too long. Mr. Esterson spoke about the challenges SME owners face – challenges such as late payments, business rates and lack of access to finance, and the injustice of the way banks treated SMEs in the wake of the financial crisis. He heralded the 2017 manifesto, developed in partnership with SMEs.
Hamish Sandison said that Labour needs to do three things: (1) bust the myth that the Tories are the party of business, (2) re-position Labour as the “natural party of business” (to paraphrase Harold Wilson), and (3) listen to business and go beyond traditional comfort zones on the doorstep. He said that businesses are frustrated with the Tories’ inability to tackle the key issues facing them, such as the productivity gap and lack of investment, and noted that the Tories couldn’t even produce their traditional letter from the ‘captains’ of industry at the 2017 general election. Labour, on the other hand, was able to do so.
Emma Barnes spoke about her eco jewellery business Wild Fawn, which consists of Emma herself plus two employees, and has been going for 3 years. She outlined a number of issues that her small business and the businesses of fellow jewellery makers face. Th ese include the VAT threshold, which can deter some businesses from expanding, and issues around competitiveness and the costs of imports.
Simon Lydiard, recently retired from the civil service, expressed concern that the big consultancy companies dominate Whitehall, locking out SMEs from key decision making. He said that the Coalition and Tory governments have had “no vision” to off er SMEs, just targets. Mr. Lydiard praised John McDonnell, saying he is one of Labour’s best media performers in his role as Shadow Chancellor, arguing for an economy of sustainable investment and inclusive growth.
In the roundtable discussion after our panellists’ speeches, we discussed how to talk to voters about business on the doorstep, how to challenge old prejudices about Labour being ‘anti-business’, how we should challenge the idea that small business and big business’ interests always align, and why we should be championing good practice among businesses.
