Sir Keir Starmer was blasted last night for ditching Tory attempts to relieve the adminstrative burden on businesses – on the same day he vowed to scrap red tape.
But at the same time, the Prime Minister was telling business leaders at his International Investment Summit that he was determined to 'rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment', claiming that where regulation is 'needlessly' holding back growth then 'we will get rid of it'. 'In the face of a looming tidal wave of red tape, Starmer's claims of a bonfire of business regulations would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.
One family-run firm said: 'Classing a business with 251 employees as a 'large business', and therefore bringing it into the same reporting and regulation regimes as a business with 10,000 employees, does not reflect the reality of business life or resources.'