- Treasury Spokesperson will set out her plan to Get
Britain Growing Again with a plan to boost businesses in every
sector from farming to pharmaceuticals.
- Cooper will describe how the Liberal Democrats have rebuilt
this party after being written off, and set out how in power the
party would rebuild the country by ripping down barriers to
business and trade and ending the computer says no economy that
is holding Britain back.
- A new Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU will be
central to the economic vision as the single biggest growth lever
we could pull.
In her keynote speech at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference,
party Treasury spokesperson will unveil a 30-page plan on
how to Get Britain Growing Again warning that economic growth is
being held back by a computer says no economy.
On Sunday, Cooper is set to unveil a major new growth plan to
tear down the barriers holding back Britain's strengths, make our
economy more resilient in the face of global turmoil, and unleash
the potential of British business.
This includes proposals to strike a new Growth and Defence
Partnership with Europe, and create a single digital
one-stop-shop service for businesses and investors, combining
tax, regulatory, legal, Companies House, and general business
services under a Tell Us Once model, situated in the new
Department for Growth proposed by the Liberal Democrats.
She will also set out the ambition to make Britain the best place
in the world for start-ups to scale and stay.
In her speech, she will reflect on the Liberal Democrat journey
to rebuild, stating for years, people wrote us off. But we
rebuilt this party. Door by door. Street by street. Seat by seat.
From 11 MPs to 72. We rebuilt our party - and now we're ready to
rebuild our country.
Central to the plan is a major drive by the party to scrap,
simplify and streamline business red tape, to help small and
medium-sized businesses compete and grow.
The Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson will also warn against
the approach of more punishing tax hikes from Labour or
painful spending cuts by the Conservatives and Reform UK.
Instead Britain must pull the biggest economic lever at our
disposal by striking the deal on a new Growth and Defence
Partnership with the EU to reverse the economic damage of Brexit
which is currently costing us £90 billion a year in lost tax
revenue, she will say.
She will take aim at Reform and the Conservatives for being
locked in a race to the bottom without a single credible costing
between them and the Conservative choice to insert a new Shadow
Chancellor who helped to deliver and defend the mini-budget that
wrecked our economy.
On the "computer-says-no" economy holding back British
business, MP will say:
We build brilliant start-ups, and watch too many leave to scale
somewhere else. We produce world-class research, and too little
of it becomes a British product. We attract foreign investment,
but can't raise enough of our own capital to match it. We pour
money into infrastructure and don't get the returns. Communities
generate growth, and watch the rewards captured by Whitehall.
Britain has the potential. The system holds it back. The computer
says no.
This plan tears down the barriers to investment, to innovation,
and to skills. It sets out how Britain becomes the best place in
the world for start-ups to scale and stay; how we build
infrastructure with communities at the heart of it; how every
business, wherever it is, can reach the talent, the capital and
the markets it needs to grow.
On deepening and strengthening ties with Europe, MP will say:
This plan starts with the single biggest thing we can do to tear
down the barriers holding Britain back - because the prize is
enormous.
It could turbo-charge our economy and start to reverse the
economic damage of Brexit which is currently costing us £90
billion a year in lost tax revenue.
That is a new Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU.
In power, we will strike the deal on the single market. We will
strike the deal on a customs union. We will strike the deal on
defence. A new deal that makes our country safer, stronger and
more prosperous. And we will say what no other party dares to
say: Britain belongs at the heart of Europe, and we will take her
there.
On the Labour government, MP will say:
And I'm worried that Labour won't be bold enough.
Just two weeks ago, the new Labour Chancellor gave his first big
speech on growth. It was trailed as a "major speech," the
"product of deep thinking." It contained no vision, no ideas, and
absolutely no mention of Europe.
On the Conservatives and Reform UK, MP will say:
Meanwhile, Reform UK and the Conservatives are locked in a race
to the bottom without a single credible costing between them.
The disastrous Truss mini- Budget crashed the pound. It spiked
your mortgage. It cost the country billions.
The new Tory Shadow Chancellor helped write it and called it the best
Conservative budget since 1986!
But the worst could be yet to come: Farage is modeling
himself on Trump. A President who has used the presidency to
enrich himself, dismantled anti-corruption safeguards and
pardoned crypto criminals.
Conference we cannot allow that kind of politics to take hold in
our country. We cannot afford to allow to win the keys to No 10 or
let the Tories put him there.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Daisy Cooper's key note speech will be at 1150 on Sunday morning,
you can watch it live here.
