Could Reform become the party of business?
The Conservatives have damaged their reputation as the party of enterprise, leaving the field wide open for Reform to seize the free market agenda, says James Price
This being a family-friendly newspaper, I will have to be judicious when quoting a certain ex-Tory Prime Minister’s response to businesses’ concerns about Brexit. “F*** business” was certainly an interesting stance from the party of enterprise.
Boris Johnson may have caveated that he merely “expressed scepticism about some of the views of those who profess to speak up for business”. But following on from the “CBI: Voice of Brussels” stunt by a Vote Leave associated group, the mini budget and Sunak’s incomprehensible raising of corporation tax, it’s clear that the centre-right have done themselves no favours with the private sector.
In fact, the relationship has reached such a nadir that the City, and markets more broadly, are now seemingly welcoming a Labour Party that a few years ago was promising to nationalise all utilities and to take ownership of 10 per cent of any UK-listed company. This volte-face is much more to do with the effects of the enduring Tory psychodrama than it is the superficial ‘smoked salmon’ charm offensive of Rachel Reeves.
I fear that business will soon find out that Starmer’s Labour considers them a necessary evil, to be soaked with more taxes as soon as the going gets tough, with absolutely no interest in the devastating second-order consequences of squeezing the profit-makers until the pips squeak.
This may give an opening to a Conservative party in the middle of its soul-searching, with a new leader trying to pick up the pieces and rebuild. But it will also be fertile ground for the insurgent Reform UK. Depending on how the election pans out, they may be in a position to continue stealing ground from the traditional right.
Insiders in Reform are aware that once the campaign is over, they have a window to staff up their operations to provide more structure and beef up their policy agenda ahead of local council and Welsh and Scottish assembly elections. If they play their cards right, they could be an enduring headache for the Tory revival and the new Labour government.
But for that to happen, they will have to lose some of their revolutionary vibes and present themselves as credible on wider policy, especially when it comes to business. Much of their core support might bristle at the necessary trade-offs and compromises. But they will never have a better opportunity to try to take their place among the bigger parties.
When it comes to business, there is already a very encouraging platform for the private sector, discounting the obvious point that they are not going to countenance closer ties to the EU’s single market, customs union or anything else related to the EU project.
Both Reform’s leader, Nigel Farage, and its Chairman, Richard Tice, had successful careers in business and wouldn’t look out-of-place in Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party. Their ‘Contract With You’ contains some good first steps for business; abolishing IR35 rules, reducing corporation tax, slashing the tax code, supporting SMEs and, crucially, reforming the planning system to allow for housing and infrastructure to get built. Fleshed out, these policies could have been written by the best of the centre-right think tanks.
Of course, policies on their own will not be sufficient for some of the business trade bodies who nevertheless started cosying up to the socialist John McDonnell in the dark days of the Theresa May administration. For that to happen, they will need a slick courting operation. But if the Conservative Party fails to place the economy, risk-taking, free enterprise, and support for capitalism at the heart of its recovery, then Reform absolutely could. At the very least, the broadly-defined “right” in the UK will be much less likely to neglect private enterprise again.
James Price is a former government advisor