Rachel Reeves has pledged that a new Labour government would be the most pro-business government in history as she plots £22bn of private sector funding for green energy projects.
The shadow chancellor has said business groups will be "in the room" as ministers decide how they see best to make the UK the fastest-growing G7 economy.
"If I become chancellor, the next Labour government is going to be the most pro-business government this country has ever seen," Ms Reeves told The Times.
She added: "More pro-business than Tony Blair’s administration, because I genuinely believe the way to improve living standards and to achieve our potential is by unlocking private business investment."
A chicken and egg thing
Ms Reeves was speaking prior to the first meeting of the party's national wealth fund task force, which includes former Bank of England governor Mark Carney and Barclay's chief CS Venkatakrishnan.
It's designed to leverage private sector funding into modern green technologies, such as carbon capture and hydrogen.
Labour would commit to more than £7.3bn of public sector funding into the scheme, with the ambition of attracting three-times that (£22bn) of funding from the private sector.
Ms Reeves said: "To get people to invest to produce green hydrogen, they need to know at the end they can sell it,” she said. “But there’s not a market to sell it into today because you’re not going to set up to buy hydrogen unless you know the hydrogen is being produced. It’s a chicken and egg thing.
“So the role of the government in that sector might be to say, ‘You produce it and we will guarantee that it will be purchased’. We will be the backstop to that."
She continued: "Our No 1 mission is to grow the economy.
"We’re not going to grow the economy by having the best civil servants and the best ministers involved. We’re going to grow the economy by understanding business.
“The people who understand best what it takes to unlock business investment are businesses, and so that’s why I want them in the room to help me make these decisions. If you can’t get a grid connection, no one’s going to build the wind farm."