The Conservatives are making a mistake with their ‘tough on business’ stance

Many at the Conservative Party conference are riding the anti-business wave by declaring that companies need to stop relying on cheap migrant labour, writes Salma Shah

Boris Johnson at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester this week (PA)

Nothing captures the imagination quite as arrestingly as the excesses and perceived deceptions of “fat cat” business leaders. Faceless corporations are often depicted as greedy, self-interested profiteers with a lack of compassion for customers, and all in need of tougher regulation.

It’s not hard to see why we have such a dismal view of private enterprise. This week we find ourselves shaking our heads at the news of Philip and Tina Green’s lavish property purchases that were seemingly assisted by an offshore company, allowing the transactions to be a little more “tax efficient”. Although the manner of the acquisition may be perfectly legal, does it pass the “smell test”? Probably not, given that BHS, a company that gave the Greens half a billion pounds over the years, was at the time on the precipice, leaving 11,000 people potentially unemployed and facing the loss of their pensions.

Facebook is also batting off questions about the nature of its business. The whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed details this week about the company’s need to keep people scrolling in order to ensure advertisers can continually reach them, prompting excoriating reviews from the Congressional committee taking the evidence. There were details about how Instagram makes teenagers feel bad about their bodies and how tackling misinformation on the platform had become less of a priority after the presidential elections.

How can anyone argue with this revelation from its former employee? “The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer,” she explained, “but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed.” To hear this from a former insider leaves a very bad taste. Ultimately, the social impacts of their tech, we’re told, are not important in comparison with the bottom line.

Is it any wonder, then, that we are seeing politicians of all hues lining up to tackle the injustices and unadulterated greed of business? Examples like this make it very easy. Many MPs at the Conservative Party conference this week are riding that anti-business wave by declaring that companies need to stop relying on cheap migrant labour in order to prevent poor wage growth. Surely the end of free movement and Brexit was going to be the solution to this? We are reigniting an argument many of us assumed had already been won.

No longer the unchallenged champion of business, the Tory Party now wishes to establish its “tough on business” credentials because, frankly, the message works and making it a question of immigration gets people going in those all-important red wall areas. How long will business tolerate this from a party that is supposed to be on their side? Many have suffered in the pandemic and are now being hit by an increase in national insurance. These are structural challenges that no one business can sort without the government’s help.

The Tory message might be popular in some places, but there is an economic reality that will have to be reckoned with. Higher wages mean higher prices and higher prices mean a squeeze on the cost of living, which is already rising through shortages and looming unemployment. But the government shouldn’t believe the solution is as simple as saying business must do more. Business has to meet a bottom line and recent circumstances have made this even harder.

It’s probably wise to reassess our caricature of business. It’s just not fair. Not every business starts off its life waiting to be bought by a parent company or floated on the stock exchange. Most businesses in Britain are small, many are family run; the majority will be doing the right thing, paying the right taxes, adhering to regulation and, in this climate, worrying about their survival.

In years gone by, it was important for politicians to back business because, ultimately, that’s where wealth comes from. Of course, there are still issues around up-skilling, and from a social perspective there are things that can be done to improve working conditions and environments; not every business behaves well. But lumping all business together in the way politicians have in recent years without understanding the delicacy of the ecosystem is an act of self-harm for the future prospects of our economy. Business is not bad. It’s time we recognised the good it can and has done.

Salma Shah was special adviser to Sajid Javid from 2018 to 2019. She was also a special adviser at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport