Labour is “a pro-worker and a pro-business party”, Reeves says

Labour is all about business today. At the party’s business conference in Canary Wharf, Rachel Reeves will unveil what she describes as a “radical plan” to make Britain the “high-growth, start-up hub of the world”. The idea, the Shadow Chancellor will tell the gathering of business leaders, is to save the country from “managed decline” under the Conservatives by adopting “bold thinking to propel us forward” as the country stands at a “post-Brexit crossroads”.

Reeves will unveil the findings of a review led by cross-bench peer Jim O’Neill – a former chief economist at Goldman Sachs and ex-chair of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Start Up, Scale Up makes recommendations aimed at removing barriers to institutional investment, helping university innovations get to market and giving more independence to the government-owned British Business Bank.

Discussing the review on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Reeves said: “The biggest reason for the failure of start ups isn’t that they aren’t being successful, it’s that they struggle to raise the money that is needed to get them going. And so one of the recommendations in the report from Jim O’Neill and the team is about how we can unleash some of the long-term patient capital – for example from our pension funds – into the venture capital industry to fund and help our start ups.”

Today’s conference is a bid to convince the business world that Labour is ready for government. The Shadow Chancellor and Keir Starmer will welcome big business leaders, including the chair of Tesco and CEO of HSBC. Reeves told BBC listeners this morning that Labour is a “pro-worker and a pro-business party, recognising that the success of each is dependent on the other”.

In other Labour news, Conor McGinn has been administratively suspended from the party pending an investigation and will sit as an Independent MP until the matter is resolved. In a statement to The Guardian, the MP for St Helens North said he believes the complaint is “totally unfounded” and that he rejects “any suggestion of wrongdoing”. The senior Starmer ally is the fifth Labour MP under investigation under the party’s new complaints process: Neil Coyle was suspended over allegations of racism; Nick Brown had the whip removed after an unspecified complaint; Rupa Huq lost the whip over comments relating to Kwasi Kwarteng; and Christina Rees had the whip suspended over bullying allegations.

Elsewhere, Michael Gove has approved plans for Britain’s first deep coal mine in 30 years. The minister greenlit the controversial project last night despite warnings that the mine – which will operate until 2049 – will undermine the government’s target of reaching net zero by 2050. There is also scepticism over the market for exports, which West Cumbria Mining has said it hopes to tap into, as most European steelmakers are turning away from the use of coal and adopting greener methods such as electric arc furnaces and renewable energy. As data analyst at Common Wealth Sophie Flinders told LabourList, “there is no clear reason why the government is going ahead with these plans now”. Labour’s Ed Miliband argued the decision is “not the solution to the energy crisis” and described Rishi Sunak as “an out-of-date fossil fuel PM in a renewable age”.