Andrew Sparrow 

Jeremy Corbyn speaks to the CBI – Politics live

Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn’s speeches to the CBI conference
  
  

Jeremy Corbyn invites businesses to join Labour to build prosperity – video

Jeremy Corbyn's speech to the CBI - Summary

  • Corbyn said Labour under his leadership wanted to work with business to build a fairer Britain. Arguing that Labour had “plenty of common ground with the CBI” and that it agreed with the CBI’s call for more investment in the autumn statement, he told the CBI conference.

Labour will be on the side of the innovators, entrepreneurs and investors that our economy and our workforce need. We will use public intervention to unleash the creativity and potential of entrepreneurial Britain.

Labour is open.

We’re open to change.

Open to new ideas.

And open to working with you.

In return, we ask you to be open, to listening to the workforce, in the boardroom as well as the shopfloor.

  • He criticised Theresa May for proposing further cuts to corporation tax. (See 5.45pm.)
  • He identified Scandinavian countries, and African and Latin American countries, as places he particularly admired for their achievements with regard to social justice and innovation respectively. But he had no single model of an ideal country, he said. This is what he said when asked which country or economic model he most admired.

During my life I have managed to visit a very large number of countries and I have found good in all of them and I have found some things very bad in all of them as well. I would not say I have any Mecca anywhere. What I do admire is the sense of public investment and enterprise that comes with the Scandinavian countries and the way in which they prioritise education and social justice in their thinking. So I admire what they do.

But then you also admire the innovation and skills of many living in very poor countries, particularly trying to develop sustainable, innovative agriculture in a very difficult situation. So I have admired many people in many African and Latin American countries that have also done a great deal to promote innovative ideas and growth.

So I think we learnt from each other, we learn from travel, we learn from ideas. I don’t have any one Mecca anywhere.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Here is Bloomberg’s David Hellier on the reception Jeremy Corbyn got at the CBI.

And here is the Sun’s Steve Hawkes saying much the same.

Q: What would you do to get hundreds of thousands of homes built quickly?

Corbyn says he would let councils borrow against their assets and income stream.

Because of the lack of government support for social housing building, housing associations get permission to build a certain number of homes, but end up having to build some of them for sale to fund the building of the social housing.

He also wants to give support to first-time buyers. The first mortgage he got was backed by a local authority, he says.

And that’s it. The Q&A is over.

I will post a quick summary soon.

Corbyn says if Britain is to have a manufacturing industry, it needs a steel industry.

A Labour government would prevent dumping of cheap Chinese steel, he says.

Fair trade is fine. But this was dumping to destroy our steel industry, he says.

Q: Is there an economy or a country that you admire?

Corbyn says he has visited a large number of countries. He has found good in all of them, and some bad things in all of them too. He says he likes the investment you see in Scandanavian countries. But he also admires the innovation you see in very poor countries. We learn from each other, and from travel, he says. He does not have one “Mecca”.

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Q: How would a future Labour government tackle inequality?

Corbyn says it starts at nursery age. He says his determination would be to invest more in giving children a good start.

He wants schools to be more innovative. Science lessons and music lessons are important, he says.

Corbyn is now taking questions.

Q: What can you do to help with innovation?

Corbyn says Labour would help with training and apprenticeships. And it would invest.

Corbyn says Labour will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts.

And it will raise the minimum wage to £10.

Labour is open: we’re open to change, open to new ideas and open to working with you.

In return, we ask you to be open, to listening to the workforce, in the boardroom as well as the shopfloor.

Open to investing in Britain, and paying a bit more corporation tax to make this country more productive and fairer, so that you’ll get a return on your investment – and open to working with us.

Together, I am confident we can rebuild and transform Britain for the common good.

Updated

Corbyn says that, in return for the government investing in infrastructure and skills, Labour expects firms to pay their taxes.

Corbyn says the future will require fresh thinking.

In 1963, Harold Wilson famously said if the country was to prosper a ‘New Britain’ would need to be forged in the white heat of a scientific revolution.

More than 50 years later, we now face the task of creating a New Britain, not just out of Brexit and a new relationship with Europe, but from the challenge of the fourth industrial revolution.

We know the first industrial revolution saw mechanized production powered by steam.

The second was powered by electricity while the third was driven by the internet and digital communication. The fourth industrial revolution is being powered by the internet of things and big data to develop cyber physical systems and smart factories

I might add that this industry ‘four point zero’ was pioneered by the German government’s high-tech strategy.

How we best respond to Brexit and the Fourth Industrial Revolution will require radical thinking.

It will challenge yesterday’s received wisdom of private good, public bad [and] it will need common-good intervention.

We certainly won’t be telling you how to run your organisations, though someone did point out to me that over the last two years Labour has more than doubled its membership, paid off £20m of loans and returned to profit!

Updated

Corbyn calls for more investment in schools and nurseries in the autumn statement.

I hope in the autumn statement we will see two more things, the reversal of what would be the largest real terms cut in the schools budget since the 1970s and the funding for the government’s nurseries pledge.

Corbyn says government has a role to play helping business.

The progressive policies of previous Labour governments helped civilise, industrialise, educate and deliver increased and shared prosperity.

Government doing what all good businesses do.

Taking the long view and adapting to change.

For too long there was a damaging consensus that government just needed to get out of the way for business to flourish.

That consensus has now broken down.

The CBI rightly identifies that we need more investment in skills. Government needs to reverse the cuts in further education and support business to deliver high quality apprenticeships.

He also criticises May for watering down her plans for workers on company boards.

And we need to see genuine employee representation at board level , which the prime minister promised, but I see is already backing away from.

Corbyn criticises Theresa May for proposing further cuts to corporation tax

Corbyn criticises Theresa May for proposing further cuts to corporation tax.

I would argue that this common ground between us on infrastructure , investing in people and skills, R&D and housebuilding are all examples of common-good intervention.

Of course, businesses will need to contribute.

It will mean some increase in corporation tax while maintaining one of the lowest rates in the world.

But see it as a sound investment not only in your own business’s long-term future but for the common good of the country.

The prime minister’s suggestion that Britain should chase after Donald Trump, in a race to the bottom in corporation tax , to fifteen percent or below, is reckless short-term grandstanding.

Corbyn calls for “a dramatic increase in the number of affordable homes” being built.

Labour would support innovation, he says, by meeting the OECD target of spending 3% of GDP a year on R&D.

It would also have a national education service, he says.

Corbyn says he will set out a “new settlement with business”.

First and foremost, a Labour government will prioritise investing in our economy.

To support investment-led growth Labour will put a National Investment Bank at the centre of our plan to rebuild and transform Britain.

Our National Investment Bank will deliver long term strategic investment in our under-powered infrastructure and provide the patient finance that our businesses need across the country.

Corbyn says John McDonnell set out Labour’s stance on the autumn statement in his speech last week.

And he says Labour and the CBI have common ground.

I see we have plenty of common ground with the CBI.

In your submission for the autumn statement you called on the government to “invest for the future, prioritising measures that boost productivity and increase life chances across all regions and nations.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Updated

Corbyn says the government’s economic policy has failed.

After six wasted years, the government’s failure to invest in infrastructure and scientific research has put at risk our future prosperity.

British employees are now a third less productive than American, German and French workers, not because they don’t have the drive, talent and spirit to succeed, but because this government prioritised ideological cuts over investing in Britain’s prosperity.

Their absurd fiscal rule meant they treated capital investment like resource spending - like treating credit card debt the same as investing in a mortgage.

Now there is an opportunity for the new chancellor, Phillip Hammond, to change course and take the bold action necessary to support our economy.

Updated

Corbyn says government has created 'huge uncertainty' by not having a plan for Brexit

Corbyn says the government has created “huge uncertainty” by not having a plan for Brexit.

Following the British people’s decision to leave the European Union, businesses have been plunged into huge uncertainty by a government which has no plan at all.

I believe when it comes to government there’s bad intervention and good intervention.

Bad intervention wants to name and shame you on the basis of how many foreign workers you employ.

Bad intervention wants to punish you with a shambolic Brexit that limits our ability to trade with the world’s largest trading bloc on our doorstep.

As Carolyn has said, a Brexit deal without tariff-free access to the single market would ‘close the door’ on an open economy.

Bad intervention also covers an international trade secretary who says, and I’m quoting, so please don’t attribute this to me, “You’re fat, lazy and spending too much time on the golf course!”

I remember Labour’s pro-business strategy in opposition in the 1990s was known as the ‘Prawn Cocktail Offensive’.

This government’s attitude seems just plain offensive.

Updated

And there’s a self-deprecating joke.

Now the TUC, under my friend Frances O’Grady, and the CBI are both led by women.

And I’d also like to congratulate Paula Nickolds on becoming John Lewis’ first female managing director.

Paula rose from the shop-floor and after 20 years ended up running the organisation.

It took me a little longer but we both got there in the end!

Jeremy Corbyn's speech to the CBI

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, is addressing the CBI conference now.

He praises the CBI for having a woman as director general, Carolyn Fairbairn.

And he invites the CBI to the conference Labour is holding on how to manage Brexit.

In a statement on Facebook Suzanne Evans, one of the Ukip leadership challengers, has said Diane James should leave the European parliament now that she has left the party. Evans says:

I am very sorry to hear Diane James has decided to leave UKIP. I am sure she has her own personal reasons and I do not question those. However she, like Steven Woolfe, were both elected as MEPs on a UKIP ticket, not as individuals. If they have any honour or integrity, both should now stand down as MEPs and vacate their seats. I reiterate my call for defectors Amjad Bashir and Janice Atkinson to do the same, for the same reasons.

Jeremy Corbyn has tweeted this ahead of his speech to the CBI.

And here is a link to where a live feed will be available.

Michael Barnier, the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, has been tweeting about his meeting with David Davis today. (See 4.40pm.)

Effectively he seems to be saying he is not interested in anything the UK has to say until it triggers article 50. It’s a diplomatic version of the bum’s rush.

Here’s my colleague Patrick Wintour’s take.

Updated

Afternoon summary

  • An ICM poll for the Guardian suggests the Conservatives have a 33-point lead over Labour on the issue of economic competence. (See 2.11pm.)
  • Diane James, the former Ukip leader, has announced that she has left the Ukip group in the European parliament. (See 4.23pm.)
  • A Home Office minister has expressed confidence in Prof Alexis Jay’s leadership of the child abuse inquiry. Sarah Newton told MPs: “I am confident, as is the prime minister, as is the home secretary, in the ability of Professor Jay to lead this inquiry.” She was speaking after Labour’s Lisa Nandy used an urgent question to say the inquiry was no longer working effectively. Nandy said:

They have lost seven senior lawyers, three chairs and several survivors groups and it is now impossible to see this inquiry is still effectively operating.

This may be the last chance that the prime minister and her home secretary have to rescue the inquiry that she set up, from collapse.

Will she now stop hiding behind the smokescreen of independence [and] recognise that she has responsibility for this inquiry’s success and get a grip on it?

But the day is not over yet. Jeremy Corbyn is addressing the CBI in about half an hour. I will be covering that in detail.

The IPPR thinktank has criticised Theresa May for her decision to water down her plans to put workers on company boards. Mathew Lawrence, an IPPR fellow on political and democratic reform, said:

Brexit was a signal that people want more control over their lives. In the workplace it is obvious why: the UK is ranked ahead of only Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania within the EU in terms of giving people influence in their own workplace.

Any decision to row back on workers on boards would be a step in the wrong direction. Worker representation on boards isn’t a radical move. Among our more productive, investment-rich European competitors it is commonplace. The aim of corporate governance reform, after all, must be to address the UK’s core economic weaknesses on productivity, investment and fair growth.

On his visit to Brussels today (see 3.34pm) David Davis, the Brexit secretary, met Michel Barner, the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator. The commission was downplaying the significance of the meeting. A commission spokesman said:

Michel Barnier had a courtesy coffee today with Mr David Davis, at his request, to re-establish contact. They confirmed that there can be no negotiations before notification.

They agreed to work towards an orderly withdrawal of the UK from the EU once the UK has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw.

The prime minister’s spokeswoman has told journalists that there is no question of the government seeking to extend the withdrawal negotiations beyond the two-year limit set out in article 50. “We will not be seeking to extend the article 50 process,” she said.

But that does not mean the government will not seek a transitional deal, as Theresa May hinted it might when she spoke to the CBI this morning. A transitional deal would kick in after the article 50 withdrawal process was over.

Diane James announces her resignation from Ukip

Here is Diane James’ statement announcing her resignation from Ukip.

She says she is going because her relationship with the party has become “increasingly difficult”.

Former Ukip leader Diane James has quit the party, her office has confirmed.

Diane James 'has resigned from Ukip'

Diane James, who spent 18 days as Ukip leader before her surprise resignation, has quit the party, Sky News is reporting.

After James resigned as leader Steven Woolfe was briefly favourite to replace her as leader. But he also left the party after a fight with a fellow MEP scuppered his leadership challenge.

Tim Roache, the GMB general secretary, has accused Theresa May of breaking her promise over putting workers on company boards. (See 12.19pm.) In a statement he said:

The Tories can claim to be the party of workers all they want, but actions speak louder than warm words.

That the prime minister stood in front of big business today and watered down a pledge made just a few months ago shows us all we need to know.

“he mask is slipping — nice speeches followed by broken promises will not help working people get fairness and dignity in the workplace.

Last year the prime minister’s speech to the CBI was interrupted by two Vote Leave protesters masquerading as businessmen attending the conference.

This year the prime minster was disrupted by a moth. The Evening Standard has the full story.

Labour’s Diane Abbott says the inquiry is on its fourth chair. Why should survivors be reassured.

She accepts that the inquiry is independent. But that does not mean ministers should take no responsibility.

Newton says Abbott knows full well that it would inappropriate for her to answer questions about operational matters.

Newton is responding to Nandy.

She says safeguarding children is at the core of the government’s priorities.

Nandy is wrong to say there is some sort of smokescreen operating, she says.

It is important that the inquiry is independent, she says.

She says Nandy asked operational questions. It would be wrong for a minister to answer those questions, Newton says.

Labour’s Lisa Nandy says the inquiry is unravelling.

Has the home secretary met survivors’ groups?

Has the Home Office found out why so many lawyers are leaving?

Is the former lead counsel, Ben Emmerson, still being paid?

Have allegations of sexual misconduct been properly investigated?

Nandy says it is “impossible to see that this inquiry is effectively operating”.

Will the government get a grip on it?

Urgent question on child sexual abuse inquiry

The Home Office minister Sarah Newton is responding to the UQ.

She says Alexis Jay was appointed to chair the inquiry in the summer, after Dame Lowell Goddard resigned. She is the right person to take this work forward, Newton says.

She says the inquiry has set up 13 strands of investigation, and made 250 formal requests for information.

Some 164,000 documents have been submitted, she says. And she says 80 cases a week are being submitted to the police.

Jay has instigated an internal review of the inquiries approach to its investigation. If any changes are proposed, the views of victims will be sought, Newton says.

Newton says the review will report soon.

The inquiry should be given the space to do its work, she says.

David Davis, the Brexit secretary, is in Brussels today for the first in what will be a series of visits to EU capitals to discuss Brexit. He is not opening negotiations, but his officials say he is there “to lay the ground for a constructive dialogue”.

In a statement Davis said:

I want to begin the work of ensuring we have positive, strong, and productive relationship with our closest neighbours.

The people of the UK have made a clear decision to leave the EU, and that is one the government will respect and implement.

But Britain will continue to be the same outward-looking country that it has always been.

I am confident that by working together we will be able to secure a deal that works in the mutual interests of the UK and the rest of the European Union.

At 3.30pm the Labour MP Lisa Nandy is asking an urgent question about the child sexual abuse inquiry.

Over the weekend two more victims groups said they had lost confidence in its leadership.

Only 20% of voters think Farage should get a peerage, ICM poll suggests

Our ICM poll (see 2.11pm) also included a question about whether Nigel Farage, the outgoing Ukip leader, should be given a peerage. There has been considerable speculation about the possible of his being offered one, not least since Theresa May refused to rule out the idea at PMQs last week.

But there is no popular appetite for sending Farage to the House of Lords. Asked if he should get a peerage, the results were:

Should get a peerage: 20%

Should not get a peerage: 58%

Even amongst Ukip supporters only 58% think Farage should get a peerage, although ICM’s director Martin Boon says Ukip supporters might be responding like that because they would rather see Farage get elected to the Commons instead.

As is often the case, the fact that only a minority of people are in favour does not necessarily mean that an idea is a bad one. The Economist recently devoted a whole editorial to saying why Farage should be send to the House of Lords and it made a strong case. Here’s an excerpt.

This newspaper is no fan of Ukip, but nor can it abide the antidemocratic stitch-up by which lords are currently appointed. Even before its regrettable triumph in the Brexit referendum, Ukip was the third-biggest party in Britain by general-election vote share. That it must still beg to nominate a single member of the bloated, 812-member upper house is a scandal. Mr Farage should be ennobled at once, along with a few of his colleagues, peerless fools though they may be.

Aside from 26 bishops of the Church of England, who get an automatic place, Lords are appointed at the discretion of the prime minister. Prime ministers normally claim to make their appointments reflect either the popular vote or the make-up of the elected House of Commons, both of which tend to let them nominate more from their own side. Yet neither approach justifies overlooking Ukip. By vote-share, Ukip has for more than a decade trumped various smaller parties that are represented in the Lords; last year it eclipsed even the Liberal Democrats, who have 104 peers. Governments sometimes argued that Ukip could be ignored because of its failure to win any seats in the Commons, something those smaller parties had all managed. (This argument also justified not giving peerages to the far-right British National Party.) But in 2014 Ukip won its first Commons seats. The injustice now is glaring ...

Liberals who despair at the thought of Mr Farage enjoying a second act in public life may yet find that he makes a better peer than they expect. He has spent 17 years as an MEP highlighting the absurdities of undemocratic governmental bodies in Brussels, to the point where the public decided they had had enough of them. Were he elevated to the upper house, Lord Farage would not be short of new, better targets.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the page on the ICM website with the tables from today’s Guardian poll.

Updated

Pat McFadden, the Labour MP and a spokesman for Open Britain, which is campaigning to keep the UK in the single market, has welcomed Theresa May’s hint that UK will seek a transitional Brexit deal. He said:

It is good that the prime minister understands the dangers of a cliff edge for the economy during the Brexit negotiations. Some within her party seem to be pushing for a hard Brexit whatever the economic consequences. However, without a transitional agreement between leaving and agreeing the future arrangements, the danger is that the UK would fall out of the single market and customs union, incurring tariffs for our manufacturing industry, losing passporting rights for our financial services, and posing threats to our agriculture. None of that is good for jobs or living standards.

A transitional agreement is therefore vital, but we need much more clarity about what the government is aiming for. With the chancellor warning of the dangers of uncertainty, continuing with vagueness is simply going to make it harder for investors and job creators.

Tories have 33-point lead over Labour on economic competence, ICM poll suggests

The Guardian’s latest ICM polling figures are out. Donald Trump’s election has triggered a fresh bout of soul-searching about the value of polls but, as the politics professor Will Jennings argues in a Staggers blog, ignoring them would just be a mistake. The key is just to keep the findings in perspective. So, with that in mind, here goes ...

Economic competence

With the autumn statement just two days away, these findings are not exactly very cheery for Labour. On the issue of economic competence, the Tories have a 33-point lead.

Respondents were asked, irrespective of which party they supported, who was best able to manage the economy properly. The results were:

Theresa May and Philip Hammond: 48%

Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell: 15%

ICM’s director Martin Boon says the Tory 33-point lead on this measure is even larger than it was when Ed Miliband and Ed Balls hit their low point on economic competence and found themselves 27 points behind David Cameron and George Osborne.

Even amongst those who voted Labour in 2015 Corbyn and McDonnell only have a six-point lead (34% saying they would be better on the economy, compared to 28% of those Labour voters saying May and Hammond would be better).

Approval ratings

Here are the approval ratings from key politicians - the figure for those saying they are doing a good job, minus the figure for those saying they are doing a bad job.

Theresa May: +22% (46% positive, 24% negative)

Jeremy Corbyn: -34% (20% positive, 54% negative)

Tim Farron: -19% (15% positive, 34% negative)

Nigel Farage: -12% (31% positive, 43% negative)

Philip Hammond: -1% (22% positive, 23% negative)

Boris Johnson: -3% (30% positive, 33% negative)

Boon says that Corbyn’s ratings “can only be described as abysmal” and that they are roughly comparable with where Ed Miliband was in the year before his general election defeat. Miliband’s approval ratings reached -39% in June 2014, having been only in the negative teens earlier in his leadership.

State of the parties

Conservatives: 42% (down 1 from ICM for the Guardian at the start of November)

Labour: 28% (up 1)

Ukip: 11% (down 1)

Lib Dems: 9% (up 1)

Greens: 3% (down 2)

Conservative lead: 14 points (down 2)

The Conservative lead is down 2 from the start of this month to “just” 14 points, but that is unlikely to worry them in CCHQ. Boon says the Tories are still within touching distance of their all-time high in Guardian/ICM polling of 45%.

ICM also asked what people thought about Nigel Farage getting a peerage. I will post those findings later this afternoon.

ICM Unlimited interviewed 2,031 adults aged 18+ online. Interviews were conducted on 18-20th November 2016 and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the page on the ICM website with the tables from today’s Guardian poll.

Updated

Here is Clive Lewis, the shadow business secretary, on Theresa May’s speech.

While I welcome the government’s commitment to start reversing the decline in research and development (R&D) spend, this is woefully inadequate and risks being too little too late

And it comes on the same day that the prime minister announced she is ditching her flagship policy to put workers on company boards - just one month after committing to it. Tory promises don’t last until Christmas.

Britain has been falling short of other countries’ R&D spend for years, something reflected in our long-term productivity problem. With even the chancellor admitting that the economy is in for a rough time as we navigate Brexit, and the future of EU-backed science funding now in question, it has never been more important for Government to be stoking the flames of innovation by committing significant public backing to R&D. But today’s commitment will leave us well below the OECD average, and well below the 3% of GDP that the OECD recommends.

This is a disappointing attempt to undo six wasted years of Tory government.

Leave Means Leave, the successor organisation to Leave.EU, has put out a statement saying a transitional Brexit deal would be unacceptable. Richard Tice, its co-chair, said:

Businesses want certainty as soon as possible, which is why Britain must leave the EU within a maximum period of two years after triggering article 50 – no EU deal is better than a bad deal - and leaving the single market and customs union as soon as possible are key to enabling the UK to take the opportunities provided by Brexit.

A transitional deal will fuel more uncertainty and leave Britain in limbo.

British voters have made it clear that they want to leave the EU and the government must deliver on this in full and at the soonest opportunity – two years after triggering Article 50, or sooner if the EU fails to negotiate.


What would a transitional deal involve?

Theresa May’s comment about a transitional Brexit deal (see 10.29am) is significant because it amounts to the strongest hint yet that the government will not let the UK simply crash out of the EU in early 2019 without business having the protection of some sort of parachute.

The demand for a transitional deal has arisen because there is a severe mismatch between the two timetables that will apply when the government negotiates Brexit. Triggering article 50, which May has promised to do before the end of March next year, will lead to the UK leaving the EU after two years. But if the UK wants a free trade deal with the EU, as seems likely, negotiating that within two years is almost certain to prove impossible. Most experts this would easily take five years, or more.

But without a trade deal in place in 2019, the UK would default to trading with the EU on World Trade Organisation terms and companies that trade with the EU would lose all preferential access. That is why the CBI and others are so keen on a transitional deal to cushion the impact of Brexit.

What would it involve? That would be a matter for negotiation, but the assumption in the business community is that it would be an arrangement that preserved single market membership, akin to Britain remaining in the European Economic Area. Or the Norway option, as it was called during the EU referendum campaign. This would allow businesses to carry on trading with the EU much as they do now, but it would also require the UK to pay into the EU budget and British firms to comply with EU regulations. It is quite possible that this could last for five years, meaning that the UK would not achieve full Brexit until perhaps 2024.

For businesses, that would be a relief. But for hardline Brexiteers who want to leave the EU quickly, this would look like a betrayal.

Theresa May's CBI speech - Summary and analysis

During the Conservative leadership contest, in a fascinating and rather leftwing speech in Birmingham, Theresa May presented herself as an unusual sort of Tory when she called for a new approach to the economy and championed the importance of having an industrial strategy. Today she had a chance to flesh out her thinking in this area in a speech that mostly focused on industrial issues. She started strongly, stressing her commitment to capitalism and free markets, but arguing that she can only defend them if they work for everyone, and much of her analysis was quite sound.

But the answers she was offering did not really match the scale of the problem she identified. She said that Britain wanted to “lead the world in understanding the extent to which some people feel left behind by the forces of capitalism”. Yet much of what she said about industrial policy and the importance of long-term investment could have been said - indeed, has been said - by every prime minister at least since John Major in the 1990s. (For example, she even announced a review to promote longterm investment that sounds remarkably similar to the one Vince Cable launched in 2012.) And the speech will remembered for what is effectively a U-turn on putting workers on company boards. If the government really wants to quell the forces driving Brexit and Trump, it is going to need more than this.

Here are the key points.

  • May confirmed that she would not force companies to put workers on their boards. In her speech during the Conservative leadership contest in the summer she said: “We’re going to have not just consumers represented on company boards, but employees as well.” The full plans will be included in a green paper on corporate governance published later this year but today May said explicitly that she was not going to force firms to put employees in the boardroom. She said:

Let me be clear about some important points.

First, while it is important that the voices of workers and consumers should be represented, I can categorically tell you that this is not about mandating works councils, or the direct appointment of workers or trade union representatives on boards.

Some companies may find that these models work best for them – but there are other routes that use existing board structures, complemented or supplemented by advisory councils or panels, to ensure all those with a stake in the company are properly represented. It will be a question of finding the model that works.

  • She hinted that the UK will seek a transitional deal to cushion the impact of leaving the EU. (See 10.29am.)
  • She said she wanted Britain to “lead the world in understanding the extent to which some people feel left behind by the forces of capitalism, and embracing a new approach that ensures everyone shares in the benefits of economic growth”.
  • She said that she strongly believed in free markets, capitalism and business, but that it was important that these forces are shown to work for everyone, not just for “a privileged few”.

As part of the changes I want to make to corporate governance, I want to make shareholder votes on corporate pay not just advisory but binding. I want to see more transparency, including the full disclosure of bonus targets and the publication of “pay multiple” data: that is, the ratio between the CEO’s pay and the average company worker’s pay. And I want to simplify the way bonuses are paid so that the bosses’ incentives are better aligned with the long-term interests of the company and its shareholders.

  • She defended the role of government in innovation, and announced plans to increase support for innovators.

Government can also step up to help drive innovative procurement, particularly from small businesses – just as the United States does so effectively. There, strategic use of government procurement not only spurs innovation in the public sector, it gives new firms a foot in the door. In fact, many of the technologies in your smartphone, from touchscreens to voice recognition, were originally commissioned, not by Apple or Microsoft, but by the US government.

So I can announce today that we will review our Small Business Research Initiative and look at how we can increase its impact and give more innovators their first break. And that Cambridge entrepreneur David Connell will lead the review and report back next year.

This is interesting because the argument that the US government created the technology exploited by companies like Apple is one that is strongly associated with the economist Mariana Mazzucato. She wrote a whole book on this called The Entrepreneurial State and is now an adviser to the Labour party.

  • She said the government would publish a green paper on its industrial strategy before Christmas, followed by a white paper “early in the new year”, aimed at addressing the inherent weaknesses afflicting the British economy. (See 9.59am.)
  • She confirmed that she wanted the UK to have the lowest corporate tax rate in the G20, and said she wanted the tax system to be “profoundly pro-innovation”.

We want to go further, and look at how we can make our support even more effective – because my aim is not simply for the UK to have the lowest corporate tax rate in the G20, but also a tax system that is profoundly pro-innovation.

  • She said that she accepted that Brexit created “uncertainty for business” but that it offered opportunities too.
  • She defended the government’s decision not to rush into Brexit.

The right approach is not to rush ahead without doing the ground work, but to take the time to get our negotiating position clear before we proceed.

  • She sidestepped a question about whether the government would abandon the cuts to universal credit in the autumn statement on Wednesday. When it was put to her in the Q&A that, if she was serious about helping families who are just managing, she had to reverse these cuts, she dodged the question. Instead she just said she was serious about wanting a country that works for everyone.

Updated

TUC accuses May of breaking her promise to put workers on company boards

Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, has accused Theresa May of breaking her promise to put workers on company boards. O’Grady said:

Theresa May made a clear promise to have workers represented on company boards. The proposals in her speech do not deliver on this. This is not the way to show that you want to govern for ordinary working people.

This is what Paul Drescher, the CBI president, said in his speech to the conference about why business wants a transitional deal for Brexit. Theresa May referred to his comments in her own answer to a question about a transitional deal. (See 10.29am.) Drescher said:

And there’s another important question: what happens on the day after Brexit?

When the clock strikes midnight, and our two years’ negotiating time is up?

Today, businesses are inevitably considering the cliff edge scenario – a sudden and overnight transformation in trading conditions.

If this happens, firms could find themselves stranded in a regulatory no man’s land.

And even if our legal obligations are clear and in place there would also be real, practical implications.

Our ports, airports and logistics firms, if faced with new trading rules, could suddenly need new and potentially complex paperwork, which would take more time and money to process.

As a result, they’d need more warehouses to store more goods on-site, and more supply roads for the vehicles waiting to deliver them.

At short notice – this would be impossible.

So – for many firms it’s not about a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ Brexit, but a ‘smooth’ Brexit, which avoids these cliff edge problems.

The government should build on the positive moves it has already made to dispel uncertainty by drawing up plans for a smooth transition, giving firms both the time to adapt to new regulation and the confidence to invest beyond 2019.

In a Facebook post Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, says he expects Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, to accuse Theresa May of a “U-turn” on her proposal to put workers on company boards.

Here is Terry Scuoler, chief executive of EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, on Theresa May’s speech.

This is a welcome announcement which outlines the beginnings of what a post-Brexit modern industrial strategy should look like. This includes a significant focus on high-value science, research and development, more intelligent use of government procurement and greater commitment to commercialise our successes.

Here is Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, responding to Theresa May’s hint that corporation tax could be cut. (See 9.45am.)

Theresa May’s announcement that big business will be receiving yet another tax break whilst two million working people face losing £2,100 a year in universal credit cuts just shows that the Tories are still the party of the out-of-touch elite. Chancellor Philip Hammond must stand up to the prime minister and reverse planned cuts to iniversal credit and employment support allowance in Wednesday’s autumn statement. Businesses need long term stability and support from government, not gimmicks.

Only Labour will make sure the super-rich and big business elite pay their fair share to deliver the public services we need. Labour will invest across the whole country to create decent jobs and make sure no part of our country is left behind again.

What May said about a transitional deal

Here is the full reply Theresa May gave when asked if she would seek a transitional deal with the EU as part of Brexit. It is a clear hint that the UK will try to negotiate such a deal.

Obviously as we look at the negotiation we want to get the arrangement that is going to work best for the UK and the arrangement that is going to work best for business in the UK. And I’m conscious that there will be issues that will need to be looked at. I understand the point that Paul [Drechsler, CBI president] has made, others have made this point, that people don’t want a cliff edge, they want to know with some certainty how things are going to go forward. That will be part of the work that we do in terms of the negotiation that we are undertaking with the European Union.

It is generally assumed that a transitional deal of this kind would involve the UK staying in the single market, or preserving most aspects of single market membership, after leaving the EU for a period of, say, five years while the UK and the EU negotiation a proper trade deal.

Business, and particularly the City (where banks fear the loss of passporting, which allows them to operate in the EU), is very keen for a deal of this kind.

But some hardline Brexiteers are opposed because they think it would, in practice, mean Britain retain what they see as the worst aspects of EU membership well into the next decade.

May hints UK will seek a transitional Brexit deal to cushion impact of leaving EU

Q: Do you accept the need for a transitional deal on Brexit? The CBI seem to want one, but some of your MPs are very opposed.

May says she wants what will work best for the UK. She understands that people do not want a cliff edge. This will be part of the negotiation.

  • May hints she will seek a transitional Brexit deal to stop firms going over a “cliff edge” when UK leaves EU.

May is coughing quite a lot. She sounds a little under the weather.

Q: How will you persuade business to invest in the UK with the cloud of Brexit hanging over us?

May says the investment from “the Facebook” shows just how attractive the UK is as an investment location.

She says on her trip to India she was encouraging investment in the UK.

May is taking questions now.

Q: Business want to hear a plan for Brexit. When will they hear it?

May says that in a negotiation it does not make sense to declare your hand. She will make announcements when she can. But it will take time.

Q: Are you backing down on your plan to put workers on boards?

May says she is very clear about wanting worker representation on boards. She will consult on how best to achieve this.

May clarifies her ‘workers on boards’ plans.

First, while it is important that the voices of workers and consumers should be represented, I can categorically tell you that this is not about mandating works councils, or the direct appointment of workers or trade union representatives on Boards.

Some companies may find that these models work best for them – but there are other routes that use existing Board structures, complemented or supplemented by advisory councils or panels, to ensure all those with a stake in the company are properly represented. It will be a question of finding the model that works.

Second, this is not about creating German-style binary boards which separate the running of the company from the inputs of shareholders, employees, customers or suppliers.

Our Unitary Board system has served us well and will continue to do so.

But it is about establishing the best corporate governance of any major economy, ensuring employees’ voices are properly represented in Board deliberations, and that business maintains and – where necessary – regains the trust of the public.

There is nothing anti-business about this agenda. Better governance will help companies to take better decisions, for their own long-term benefit and that of the economy overall.

So this is an important task. We will work with you to achieve it, and I know you will rise to the challenge.

May turns to corporate governance.

We all know that in recent years the reputation of business as a whole has been bruised. Trust in business runs at just 35% among those in the lowest income brackets.

The behaviour of a limited few has damaged the reputation of the many. And fair or not, it is clear that something has to change.

For when a small minority of businesses and business figures appear to game the system and work to a different set of rules, we have to recognise that the social contract between business and society fails – and the reputation of business as a whole is undermined.

So just as government must open its mind to a new approach, so the business community must too.T

hat is why we will shortly publish our plans to reform corporate governance, including executive pay and accountability to shareholders, and proposals to ensure the voice of employees is heard in the Boardroom.

The UK rightly has a strong reputation for corporate governance – the Cadbury, Greenbury and other reforms, built on the strong foundations of the Companies Act and the Corporate Governance Code, have made the UK a prime location for listing and headquartering.

But we can’t stand still – we must continue to make improvements where these result in better companies and improved confidence in business on the part of investors and the public.

Much can be done by voluntary improvements in practice – in the representation of women on company Boards and in senior positions for example, or in broadening diversity.

But where we need to go further we will.

So there will be a Green Paper later this autumn that addresses executive pay and accountability to shareholders, and how we can ensure the employee voice is heard in the Boardroom.

This will be a genuine consultation – we want to work with the grain of business and to draw from what works. But it will also be a consultation that will deliver results.

May says government must play a part too.

Government can also step up to help drive innovative procurement, particularly from small businesses – just as the United States does so effectively. There, strategic use of government procurement not only spurs innovation in the public sector, it gives new firms a foot in the door. In fact, many of the technologies in your smartphone, from touchscreens to voice recognition, were originally commissioned, not by Apple or Microsoft, but by the US government.

So I can announce today that we will review our Small Business Research Initiative and look at how we can increase its impact and give more innovators their first break. And that Cambridge entrepreneur David Connell will lead the review and report back next year.

May announces patient capital review, chaired by Sir Damon Buffini

May says she wants to help firms capitalise on innovative ideas.

There is no point having great ideas, great products, great start ups, if you can’t get the investment you need to grow your business here. For while the UK ranks 3rd in the OECD for the number of start-ups we create, we are only 13th for the number that go-on to become scale-up businesses.

I want us to turn our bright start-ups into successful scale-ups by backing them for the long-term. To do this we need to better understand where the barriers are, so I am pleased to announce we will launch a new Patient Capital Review - led by the Treasury - that will examine how we can break down the obstacles to getting long-term investment into innovative firms. The review will be supported by a panel of experts, and I am pleased to announce that Sir Damon Buffini has agreed to chair that panel.

May says she wants the tax system to be “profoundly pro-innovation”

May says she wants the tax system to be “profoundly pro-innovation”.

Since 2010 we have made the Research and Development Credit more generous and easier to use – and support has risen from £1bn to almost £2.5 billion a year.

Now we want to go further, and look at how we can make our support even more effective – because my aim is not simply for the UK to have the lowest corporate tax rate in the G20, but also a tax system that is profoundly pro-innovation.

May says today she wants to make specific proposals for research and development.

In the autumn statement on Wednesday, we will commit to substantial real terms increases in government investment in R&D - investing an extra £2 billion a year by the end of this Parliament to help put post-Brexit Britain at the cutting edge of science and tech.

A new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund will direct some of that investment to scientific research and the development of a number of priority technologies in particular, helping to address Britain’s historic weakness on commercialisation and turning our world-leading research into long-term success.

And we will also review the support we give innovative firms through the tax system.

May says these are the challenges the government will address in an industrial strategy green paper before the end of the year, to be followed by a white paper “early in the new year”.

May says the economy has many strengths.

But it is also important to be “frank” about the economy’s weaknesses too, she says.

We have more Nobel Laureates than any country outside the United States, but all too often great ideas developed here end up being commercialised elsewhere.

We are home to one of the world’s financial capitals, but too frequently fast-growing firms can’t get the patient long-term capital investment they require, and have to sell-out to overseas investors to access the finance they need.

We have truly world class sectors and firms, but overall business and government investment remains lower than our competitors.

We have outstanding firms and clusters in every part of this country, but taken as a whole our economic success is still too unbalanced and focused on London and the South-East.

We have gold-standard universities, but we are not strong enough in STEM subjects, and our technical education isn’t good enough.

And while the UK’s recovery since the financial crisis has been one of the strongest in the G7, our productivity is still too low. But if we want to increase our overall prosperity, if we want more people to share in that prosperity, if we want bigger real wages for people, if we want more opportunities for young people to get on, we have to improve the productivity of our economy.

So these are the long-term, structural challenges the Industrial Strategy aims to address.

But there is more the government can do, says May.

That is why one of my first actions as Prime Minister was to establish a new department with specific responsibility for developing a modern Industrial Strategy. A strategy that will back Britain’s strategic strengths and tackle our underlying weaknesses.

May says there have been “massive votes of confidence” in the UK since Brexit

May says there have been “massive votes of confidence” in the UK since Brexit.

We have already received massive votes of confidence in Britain’s long-term future from some of the world’s most innovative companies. Nissan’s decision to build two next generation models at its plant in the North East, securing 7,000 jobs. A record £24 billion investment from Softbank in Britain’s future; a £500 million expansion and 3,000 jobs from Jaguar Land Rover; a £200 million investment from Honda, £275 million from Glaxo Smith Kline; investment in a new headquarters from Apple; an estimated £1 billion investment and 3,000 new jobs from Google; and this morning Facebook have announced a 50% increase in their workforce in the UK by the end of 2017.

May says government right not to rush into Brexit

May says she knows that Brexit creates uncertainties.

And there are certainly challenges.

But there are opportunities too, she says, to forge partnership with old allies and new partners.

She says she is ambitious for Britain.

If the government approaches the “difficult” negotiations to come in the right way, it can strike a deal that is right for Britain and Europe too.

She says it is important not to rush, and to work out first what the government wants.

  • May says government right not to rush into Brexit.

I believe that if we approach the difficult negotiations to come in the right way, with the right spirit, we can strike a deal that’s right for Britain and right for the rest of Europe too.

And the right approach is not to rush ahead without doing the ground work, but to take the time to get our negotiating position clear before we proceed. It is not to seek to replicate the deal that any other country has, but to craft a new arrangement that’s right for us and right for Europe – recognising that a strong EU is good for Britain. It’s not to provide a running commentary on every twist and turn, but to acknowledge that businesses and others need some clarity - so where I can set out our plans without prejudicing the negotiation to come I will.

That’s why I have been able to set out the timetable for triggering Article 50 - before the end of March next year. Why I want an early agreement on the status of UK nationals in Europe and EU nationals here, so that you and they can plan with certainty. And why we have been engaging heavily with businesses over the past few months to understand your priorities and concerns, and why we will continue to do so.

Updated

May says the autumn statement will include an agenda ambitious for business, and ambitious for Britain.

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, will say what can be done to boost the UK’s long-term economic success.

May says people want change. And she will deliver the change they want.

For government, that means not just stepping back, but stepping up to a new active role that backs business.

And business must do more to spread the benefits of what it does around the country.

The “vast majority” of businesses do this already, she says.

Theresa May starts by saying the government believes in capitalism and business.

But she is here today not just to reaffirm these beliefs, but to say that if we believe in capitalism, it is necessary to embrace reform.

  • May says business must reform to reflect concerns of people who are not benefiting from capitalism.

She says she wants business to work with her to show that the forces of capitalism offer the best hope to those who are left behind and marginalised.

We must meet this national moment, and build a country that works for everyone, she says.

Theresa May's speech to the CBI

Theresa May is starting her speech to the CBI conference now.

The fire alarm is over.

Some newspapers were briefed last night that Theresa May will use her speech to commit the government to giving Britain the lowest corporation tax in the G20. According to the Times she will say:

My aim is not simply for the UK to have the lowest corporate tax rate in the G20, but also one that is profoundly pro-innovation.

The Times in its splash story (paywall) says that Donald Trump’s promise to cut the equivalent tax in the US to 15% could create a problem for May. It says:

During his campaign, Mr Trump promised to cut the federal business tax rate from 35 per cent to 15 per cent, which would bring it lower than the British level of 20 per cent. Under existing plans, UK corporation tax — a levy on profits— is due to drop to 17 per cent by 2020. The Resolution Foundation, a think tank specialising in economic and social policy, said yesterday that it would cost £10 billion a year fully to implement the drop to 15 per cent.

But, according to the BBC, government sources are arguing that, when you include state business taxes as well as the federal one, the corporate tax rate in the US is higher than 15%. May is talking about the “corporate tax rate”, not the corporation tax rate.

Her promise is actually the same as the one in the Conservative party manifesto at the last election. It said:

In the next parliament, we want to maintain the most competitive business tax regime in the G20, and oppose Labour’s plans to increase corporation tax.

Here is Chuka Umunna, the former shadow business secretary, on Theresa May’s speech.

A fire alarm has just gone off in the Commons press gallery, so I will have to leave the office. With luck I’ll be back in time for the speech.

TUC challenges May to keep her promise to put workers on company boards

Here is Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, challenging Theresa May to keep her promise to put workers on company boards. (See 8.56am.)

The government is due to publish its actual proposals to boost worker representation on company boards in a green paper on corporate governance later this year. On the Today programme this morning Greg Clark, the business secretary, confirmed that this would not necessarily mean actual workers having seats on boards. Asked what the government would propose, Clark replied:

There are different ways of doing this. Theresa May has talked about an economy that works for everyone - that includes workers, employees, consumers, the supply chain businesses - so we will put forward a series of ways in which those voices can be represented on boards. We will publish those plans. We will have options. We are working with business.

It is very important that the confidence that the employees in every part of the country have that very successful British business works for them is something that Theresa May and this government takes very much to its heart and we are acting on it.

Here is the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Clark’s comments.

In his Financial Times preview of Theresa May’s speech (subscription) George Parker describes one of the ideas that May is apparently looking at as an alternative to having workers on company boards.

The prime minister is looking at alternative models, rather than having an ordinary worker at board meetings. This could include a director instructed to reflect shop floor or consumer opinion.

When Theresa May became prime minister she said that she did not want her government to be defined by Brexit. For the last four months she has been conspicuously failing to achieve this ambition - Brexit has overshadowed almost everything else the government had done, virtually on a daily basis - but this morning May will step away from EU policy for a moment and give a speech to the CBI setting our her vision of how business should operate in Britain.

Some aspects of the speech have already been briefing in advance. May will commit the UK to a £2bn annual fund for scientific research and development and a review of tax incentives for innovative corporations in an effort to boost the technology industry. She will reaffirm the government’s commitment to keep business taxes lower than in any other G20 country. But she is also expected to signal that she is watering down her plan to force firms to have workers’ represented on company boards.

In a speech during the Tory leadership campaign she gave a firm commitment on this. She said:

The people who run big businesses are supposed to be accountable to outsiders, to non-executive directors, who are supposed to ask the difficult questions, think about the long-term and defend the interests of shareholders. In practice, they are drawn from the same, narrow social and professional circles as the executive team and – as we have seen time and time again – the scrutiny they provide is just not good enough. So if I’m Prime Minister, we’re going to change that system – and we’re going to have not just consumers represented on company boards, but employees as well.

But in an article in the Financial Times (subscription) today she uses quite different language to express her intentions on this front, saying that now she is just focused on ensuring that workers’ voices are “properly represented in board deliberations”.

I am asking British businesses to work with me to change this. It will mean establishing the best corporate governance of any major economy, ensuring the voices of employees and consumers are properly represented in board deliberations and reforming executive pay. This will be essential to ensure business maintains and — where necessary — regains public trust.

This is quite a significant retreat. Business organisations were concerned by May’s original plan (which was warmly welcomed by the TUC) and, combined with other government statements (most notably Amber Rudd’s plan - now abandoned - to force firms to reveal what proportion of their workers were foreign) it helped to create the impression that May’s administration was relatively hostile to corporate Britain. Today she seems to be out to show it some love.

I will be covering the speech in full, as well as Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to the conference in the afternoon.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.45am: Theresa May speaks to the CBI conference.

11am: Number 10 lobby briefing.

2.30pm: Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

5.25pm: Jeremy Corbyn speaks to the CBI conference.

As usual, I will be covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.

 

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