Sir Keir Starmer has attempted to win over business leaders at the British Chambers of Commerce conference in London, vowing "we have to back you to the hilt".
The prime minister addressed the conference in the capital, which was attended by Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce along with companies including Heathrow, Spire Healthcare and NatWest.
During her speech at the conference, Shevaun Haviland, the BCC’s director general, pushed for the government to commit to freezing business taxes after research revealed a third of businesses surveyed had were planning to or already had cut staff due to tax increases.
The Times reports that Starmer said: “I want to begin by thanking you all because look, I fully acknowledge here that this year, as we’ve had to fix the foundations of our country, deal with the unprecedented mess that we inherited, we’ve asked a lot of you. I understand that."
He said that the government had shown a “clear shift” to the “next phase” of “investing in the future of our country”.
The prime minister added: “And that means that we have to back you to the hilt. Because your members are the engines of growth in every community across the United Kingdom.”
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