Andrew Griffith MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade, CPC 2025 Speech

Andrew Griffith MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade, CPC 2025 Speech

“Conference, business builds Britain.

It is business that takes ideas and turns them into reality.

Takes jobs and turns them into livelihoods.

And it is business that pays the nation's bills.

With strong business, everything is possible.

I spent 25 years in business where I saw optimism at work every day.

That is why I am optimistic.

I know Britain can return to being a world-leading economy.

Our country has huge strengths which even years more of this government will not diminish.

The English language, respect for property, our deep, sophisticated financial markets, and a mix of the businesses that thrive globally.

Around the world, people want what we produce.

And they want our skills, our capital and our ideas.

Thanks to the last Conservative government, we have an independent trade policy which allows us to sell not just to Europe but to our long-standing allies and most of the fastest growing economies on the planet.

Compare that distinguished record on trade to the press release politics we've seen over the last year.

The Prime Minister told us in May his US deal was signed, sealed and delivered.

Yet tariffs remain.

He told us he had a deal for pharmaceuticals.

But it never materialised, and our drug companies are leaving.

He told us he finally understood Brexit

And he then went running back to Brussels to let them dictate our rules, killing our flexibility for future deals.

It's clear that Labour and the other parties simply don't understand business.

How could they? Unlike our Party, their ranks are full of professional politicians, trade unionists and the public sector.

No government that understood business would ever have imposed a jobs tax and changes to national insurance thresholds which hurt those employing the most the hardest.

Or the family business tax – a death tax.

Or doubled rates on the very businesses which keep our high streets alive.

And conference, no government that cared about British firms and British workers would ignore energy costs that are four times higher than our competitors.

Instead of creating wealth, they attack it, driving away entrepreneurs, investors, and top talent.

Too many of our best and brightest are exchanging Docklands for Dubai or Manchester for Milan.

And what Labour do nationally, the Greens, Lib Dems and the nationalists do locally.

Hostile planning policies frustrating businesses trying to expand.

Blocking new infrastructure.

And suffocating firms with traffic congestion, parking restrictions and red tape.

The next government will fix this and more just as after the failed consensus of the seventies, Britain picked itself up, restoring our pride and our growth.

But the process of change requires being honest about where we start.

We are no longer the rich country many think we are.

For too long we've been slipping down the international rankings in GDP per capita, competitiveness, and inward investment.

Under Labour, Britain is competing in the veterans' race - comparing ourselves to the G7 - when the real competition are those younger, fitter economies who are overtaking us.

We Conservatives know that it is only private enterprise that creates growth, not government.

There were moments in office where we strayed from that truth.

More regulations, raising taxes, the state as nanny.

Indulging the idea that government is the solution, when we know very often it is the problem.

But the Conservative Party is under new management.

And at the heart of our strategy is an approach that's proud to champion wealth creators and risk takers.

Creating a new generation of entrepreneurs and backing our businesses.

I am announcing clear policies today which start that work.

In our very first budget, we will repeal the family business tax which punishes success and dis-incentivises growth.

We will build a tax system which values those who take a risk and helps the smallest businesses.

And the next Conservative government will actively reverse the job destroying measures in Labour's Unemployment Rights Bill.

A Bill which allows strikes to be called even if just a tiny fraction of the workforce vote.

A Bill which will destroy job opportunities for young people whilst topping up Labour's political fund without workers being given the choice.

And the opposition to this terrible Bill in Parliament has been led by your Conservative shadow business team.

• David Hunt and Andrew Sharpe in the House of Lords.

• My shadow Ministers Harriet Baldwin, Gareth Davies and my PPS, Ali Griffiths in the Commons.

Not by any other party.  By the Conservative Party.

And there is more.

I understand there are far too many hurdles for small businesses to jump.

Red tape that steals away the precious time of those who run them.

Take HMRC, an organisation which literally tried to turn its helplines off for six months of the year.

We say ‘enough'. That is unacceptable.

So, within weeks of entering government, we will that ensure every time a small business contacts HMRC, they are given the opportunity to rate their experience in the same way as companies seek customer feedback.

No more hanging on the phone for an hour with no one held accountable.

No one loves paying their taxes. But the taxman needs to respect those whose hard work and enterprise pays their salaries.

Nowhere. Nowhere is that more important than the self-employed.

They're risk-takers, striking out on their own, often with nothing more than a laptop and a belief they can make it work.

That's why we commit today to doing better for the self-employed. And that includes looking again at reforming IR35.

Because if Britain is to have ladders of opportunity, then the self-employed need to be able to climb them.

Similarly, opening a bank account today is so hard it is a miracle anyone starts a business at all.

It can take weeks or even months to do what other countries do in minutes.

It shows just how far our regulators have lost the plot and it's a brake on growth we cannot afford.

So, we will transform a process which makes banks treat you as guilty until proven innocent.

From the tone at the top of the regulators to repealing EU era rules, we have a clear plan, and we will fix this.  

So: scrapping the family business tax, reversing the Unemployment Bill, easier bank accounts and a better service from HMRC.

Real policies that will make a real difference.

And, where we can, we need a tax framework which shows our support with actions not words.

No sector has been hurt harder by Labour's onslaught against enterprise than hospitality, retail, and leisure/

89,000 jobs lost in the hospitality sector alone since Rachel Reeves' Autumn Budget.

One of her first actions in office was to more than double business rates for many of our high street businesses by cutting the relief that previous Conservative governments introduced.

Because of the choices she's made, the life in our high streets is ebbing away.

And we know the heart of our communities are suffering.

So, we want to give them hope.

Today, we are announcing that when we return to government, we will introduce a permanent, one hundred per cent rate relief in business rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure.

250,000 businesses will benefit from that change.

Pubs, shops, restaurants struggling across the country will be saved.

And our high streets will get an enormous boost.

But conference there's one more thing.

We want to reignite a culture of entrepreneurship in Britain.

To support and celebrate those who take a risk.

A mission the like of which we've not seen since my friend and mentor, Lord David Young was Mrs Thatcher's Secretary for Trade and Enterprise.

To create a new generation of entrepreneurs.

As Business Secretary, I want to see young entrepreneur schemes flourish in every school and college in the country.

Building on existing schemes, delivered by people who've been there and done it and who want the next generation to succeed.

We will provide the support to make this happen because this is what we believe a stronger economy requires. 

So, Conference, let me be clear.

The Conservative Party as the party of enterprise, the party of the entrepreneur, the party of business.

On the side of the pub landlord, the restaurateur, the small business owner, the self-employed, and the family business.

Those who work for themselves and give work to others.

The builders, not the blockers.

Those that make, not those that take.

That's who we support, that's who we believe in, that's who our government will serve.

Nations that seize opportunity, rise.

We will seize that opportunity, and together we will make Britain's economy strong again.

Thank you.”