The Business Secretary is due next week to hold talks with dozens of private sector bosses as the government faces a corporate backlash to Labour’s first financial event in nearly 15 years.
Sky News has learned that executives have been invited to join a conference call on Monday with Jonathan Reynolds, in what will mark his first meaningful engagement with employers since Wednesday’s budget statement.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has destabilized financial markets with plans to take out billions of pounds in extra borrowing, and unnerved business leaders when she said she would raise an extra £25 billion a year by increasing their National Insurance contributions.
Officials had tracked the increase in NICs for employers ahead of the Budget, but cutting the minimum to just £5,000 has sparked expectations of a wave of redundancies and even insolvencies in labour-intensive industries.
Sectors such as retail and hospitality, which employ large numbers of part-time workers, have been particularly vocal in their condemnation of the move.
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On Friday, the Financial Times published comments made by the CEO of Barclays Bank in which he defended Reeves.
“I think they have done a great job in balancing spending, borrowing and taxes to drive the core goal of growth,” CS Venkatakrishnan said.
However, his voice was rare among prominent business figures in support of the Chancellor, with many questioning whether the government had a meaningful plan to grow the economy.
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Mr Reynolds made a similar call to business leaders within days of winning the general election, and it is understood more than 100 business leaders were invited to attend Monday’s debate.
A spokesman for the Department of Business and Trade declined to comment before Monday’s call.
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