At its 2024 annual conference on 22-24 November, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) convened, bringing senior politicians together with business chiefs from across Britain.
What was a tense conversation at the QEII centre about the future of UK business was also a reminder of the importance of events for maintaining a line of communication between politicians, businesses and the general public.
Taking to the stage, CEO of CBI Rain Newton-Smith said that Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ tax-heavy Budget has “made it harder for businesses to take a chance on people”, while McVitie’s boss Salman Amin claimed it was “becoming harder to understand” the case for investing in the UK. Despite an onslaught of criticism, Reeves maintained she made the right choice.
The Confederation of British Industry is ‘Britain’s biggest business lobby group’ – an organisation representing 190,000 businesses. CBI meets annually with leading politicians and industry experts to discuss the state of British business.
This year’s edition was distinctly gloomy in tone. CEO after CEO expressed their discontent with the Labour government’s stance on business, with CBI chairman (and Winston Churchill’s grandson) Rupert Soames claiming that companies were being “milked” by tax hikes.
The Chancellor was one of several politicians to take to the stage at the three-day conference. She tried to reassure the crowd, saying, “we’re never going to have to do a Budget like that again”. Reeves claimed she’d had no choice but to raise taxes as she hadn’t heard any “alternatives”. Also addressing the conference was Kemi Badenoch, who admitted: “we Conservatives lost the confidence of business”.
The CBI Annual Conference is one of the UK’s main events for big business. In 2023, the conference was in jeopardy following a sexual misconduct scandal. Politicians and corporations threatened to abandon the event, fearing its public image was beyond repair. This year, CEO Newton-Smith stated that CBI is “back at the top table”, with renewed relevance as a leading business event in Britain.
