Sunak seeks to win back corporate Britain with new business forum

Rishi Sunak will hold the first of a series of summits with UK corporate leaders on Monday as his ruling Conservative party seeks to repair the damage done by the Brexit years and fend off Labour’s attempts to become the party of business.

The debut of the “Business Connect” forum, which will bring together 200 senior business figures at a venue in London, will take on extra urgency as the UK’s premier business lobby group, the CBI, teeters on the brink of collapse following two rape allegations.

Downing Street said the prime minister wanted the format to become “a new platform” for businesses to engage with government. “We are bringing together some of the UK’s biggest companies and investors for meaningful dialogue,” Sunak said.

Many business leaders were infuriated by the economic dislocation of Brexit and the political chaos of recent years — summed up by former prime minister Boris Johnson’s “fuck business” comment when he was foreign secretary.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been seeking to capitalise on the disquiet with the Tories by looking to reassure business leaders that the left-leaning party does not pose a threat to corporate Britain if it returns to power.

An exodus of big companies from the CBI, which began on Friday with names such as Aviva, John Lewis and Kingfisher, continued over the weekend as Tata Steel quit as a member.

The City of London Corporation also said it was reviewing its membership after weeks of damaging headlines about CBI workplace culture, which have included allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and drug-taking.

More than 50 of the group’s largest members have now either cut or suspended ties, prompting early conversations on how to fill the vacuum.

New director-general Rain Newton Smith will start work at the CBI this week faced with the massive task of saving the organisation. The board is expected to attempt to begin restoring confidence by publishing the conclusions of a three-week independent investigation by law firm Fox Williams into the allegations within days.

The lobby group in effect placed itself in limbo on Friday night by suspending “all policy and membership activity” until an extraordinary general meeting in June.

The crisis was triggered by a report in The Guardian newspaper, based on the testimony of more than a dozen women, that the CBI suffered from a toxic culture that failed to protect female staff from sexual harassment.

The allegations include an alleged rape at a 2019 staff party on a Thames river boat, which is now being investigated by the City of London Police. On Friday, the same paper reported a separate allegation of rape at one of the CBI’s overseas offices, triggering the exodus of members.

While the report will remain confidential, the CBI will publish details of how it intends to enact a “root and branch” reform into its workplace culture, including human resources processes that many affected female employees have criticised.

At the Business Connect event on Monday Sunak and other ministers will try to charm executives, including senior figures from Barclays and Diageo, with their pro-business credentials.

One CBI insider said the event, while welcome, would not be a substitute for the organisation, which was founded in 1965 and lobbies the government while producing policy and statistical resources for industry.

Although the CBI has been deserted by sections of its membership, many large members have argued that a rebooted and refocused organisation — or something that performs an equivalent function — is what will be needed.

One business lobbyist said his members were “wary” of Business Connect because it was not a cross-party initiative.

Additional reporting by Sylvia Pfeifer