Rachel Reeves humiliated by business chief minutes after speaking at CBI conference

Rachel Reeves was accused of showing “gall” today after she claimed to be on the side of businesses following her tax-hiking Budget.

Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry, the Chancellor reiterated her desire to back businesses by providing a “rock of stability”.

She told representatives at the conference that the Government will create the conditions to encourage investment, and ruled out any further tax raids on firms over the coming parliament.

She insisted that her first Budget was a one-off to make the Treasury’s numbers add up, and she will never have to deliver another like it before the next election.

Ms Reeves insisted this was the right approach, arguing: “I faced a problem, and I faced into it, and we have now drawn a line under the fiction peddled by the previous government.”

“We’ve put our public finances back on a firm footing, and we’ve now set the budgets for public services for the duration of this Parliament.

The Chancellor insisted that it will now be the public sector who have to live within their means, and deliver meaningful reforms over the coming years to ensure better outcomes and value for money.

However she faced a frosty reception, with CBI chairman Rupert Soames blasting that businesses have been “milked as the cash cow” following her conference address.

He fumed: “There is no doubt here, that in this Budget, business has been milked as the cash cow.”

Mr Soames also argued that the government is making positive changes with one hand while clobbering employment with the other.

He explained: “This week, the Department of Work and Pensions is going to produce a paper setting out actions to help get a meaningful number of the nine million (jobless people) back into work.

“But at the same time, we have a Budget which makes employing people, particularly the young, part time and low pay much more expensive.

“And we have an employment rights bill which makes employing people much more risky and an adventure playground for lawyers. These policies are directly in conflict with each other.

“It’s hardly surprising that business people are scratching their heads and asking themselves: ‘What really is the government trying to achieve, and how do these policies hang together?’”

Following Rachel Reeves’s fireside chat, the Conservative shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said she has “some gall to stand in front of business leaders and suggest that she is on their side.”

“Labour’s National Insurance jobs tax will punish businesses across the country – making it harder for them to create jobs, driving down wages and discouraging investment.”

Yesterday the Federation of Small Businesses also demanded Ms Reeves look again at her flagship employment proposals after the official government watchdog warned that the Government’s impact assessments are seriously lacking.

The Regulatory Policy Committee’s report warned that eight of the 23 individual impact assessments for the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill are “not fit for purpose”.

The FSB’s Tina McKenzie said the committee’s report endorses their concerns about the Bill’s disproportionate impacts on small employers, and that the legislation “has simply not been thought through.”

“This is a sharp wake-up call for Ministers who must think again about the dangers of a cavalier approach to jobs and work.

“The country cannot afford to pile further cost and risk on to small employers based on such an overwhelmingly weak evidence base.”

Asked if she would revisit any of her Budget measures during a CBI Q&A, Ms Reeves insisted she would not.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also spoke at the conference, saying her government would “look again at how we see risk” when developing policies in Whitehall.

She said civil servants are too obsessed with creating a “zero risk environment” which creates bottlenecks in decision making and means big projects are “taking too long”.