‘When you look under the hood there’s nothing there’: Businesses clamoured for an audience with Labour top brass at the party’s conference this week but doubts about Starmer’s program persistbecause the Opposition is so in demand – but many in the corporate world still harbour doubts about its plan to grow the economy.
“This conference is incomparable to last week,” one source said. “Last week felt like a scattergun approach but this has been so stage-managed – with genuine thought put into the announcements and a planned strategy with more of a narrative.” A lobbyist added: “They say they want to engage with medium and small businesses, but when you actually ask them how they’re going to do it they can’t answer. And a lot of people are still worried about nationalisations – on housing, they say they want to unlock building but then they also say they’ll build it all themselves.”