A woke business gathering seems oddly in tune with Labour

DEBATE HAS raged over whether it is the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Chambers of Commerce or some other body that truly represents British business. The winner this year was the lucky group whose conference fell four weeks before the election. The leaders of all three main parties took turns on November 18th to woo CBI members packed into a Greenwich ballroom.

None of the trio had an easy task. Jeremy Corbyn had just unleashed Labour’s latest nationalisation plan, of BT’s Openreach network (business folk tend not to be keen on nationalisation). Boris Johnson had to advocate Brexit to a strongly pro-EU audience. Jo Swinson had to win credibility for the Liberal Democrats.

Oddly enough it was the message of Mr Corbyn, not popular among entrepreneurs, that chimed with an earnest conference programme. His exhortation to business to help “raise the platform on which our whole society stands” was of a piece with panels on how to make “profit with purpose” and on the role of firms in lessening social inequality.

The CBI also joined Labour in lionising the hi-fi entrepreneur Julian Richer, a favourite of shadow chancellor John McDonnell. Mr Richer this year gave a big stake in his firm, Richer Sounds, to employees. On Monday the CBI launched his “Good Business...