Business leaders demand money back after £3,000 conference ‘rip-off’

Corporate chiefs will be asking Labour to refund them for a £3,000-a-head business day at the party’s conference which they said was “bleak” and a “waste of money”.
Labour boasted it had hundreds of paying executives attending its largest-ever business day, where top corporate figures got to hear from the prime minister, chancellor and other cabinet ministers.
But at least three firms told The Times they would be asking for their money back after they got “minimal time” with ministers and were “talked [at] from the stage for four hours”.
One executive from a well-known household brand said: “We paid £3,000 to come here and what did we get? A livestream of Rachel [Reeves]’s speech and then to be made to queue in a bleak corridor for a drinks reception where there was no access to ministers.”
Another said: “I’ll be trying to get a refund. The whole thing felt like they’d taken our money, they’re in for five years and it was lip service. I’m glad I didn’t waste my CEO’s day by bringing them up.”
They said it was the party’s “one chance to show they’d changed and that they appreciate private enterprise now, but they clearly don’t, it was a waste of money”.
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One chief executive said while they would not be asking for a refund, they were “questioning value for money for next year”. “Last year is was very well organised and structured,” they said. “This year the event didn’t start until 11.30 and we were talked [at] from the stage for four hours.”
But a Labour source, referring to the row over freebies taken by cabinet ministers, said: “Last week people had too much access to them and now it’s not enough. We can’t win.”
The business day began with talks by regional leaders before the chancellor’s speech was livestreamed. Later there were question and answer sessions with Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, Reeves, the chancellor, and the prime minister. Bosses were then invited to drinks and dinner, with the promise of access to ministers.
But there were confrontations between bosses and officials when the room the drinks reception was being held in was not ready in time, and a long queue formed in the corridor.
One boss said: “Lunch was just stand up sandwiches in a hot room, with virtually no ministers visible. Last year the Tories had a sit down lunch with a cabinet minister on each table and a speech from the PM.”
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They said appearances by the prime minister and chancellor were “relatively brief” and added: “Funny thing is, Labour was really good at this in opposition. They will get fewer registrations, and therefore fewer fees, next year if they can’t promise something better.”
One adviser who works with several business figures said the party was not engaging with firms as much as they’d hoped. “They’re not doing the meetings we thought they’d want to do,” they said. “We just had the same handful of ministers saying the same thing to the room over and over.”
Complaints included Reeves and Reynolds being constrained in answers to questions because of the upcoming Budget.
One business leader said: “From a timetable point of view the chancellor couldn’t and wouldn’t talk about tax and Jonathan Reynolds just told us to wait a few more days for the Employment Bill. They could have announced something but they just didn’t.”
Labour tried to pitch itself as pro-business during the general election and has been consulting with leaders to ensure its overhaul of workers’ rights does not harm growth. Next month Reynolds will hold an international summit which aims to boost investment in Britain.
However, one tech industry boss said the party had failed to put any “detail” on the “pro-business slogans which had been used during the campaign”.
He said: “Some of us are now quite worried about the investment summit and how much actual substance we’ll get there.”
Another person at the conference said the business day was “poorly managed with little face-to-face engagement with ministers, which goes against a lot of the good work the Labour Party has done with the business community in the lead up to the election”.
They said there was a general sense that ministers and MPs had not been compelled by the party to attend what should have been a high-profile event.
One business chair said they had managed to get meetings with certain cabinet ministers and was grateful, but added: “They’ve been on the back foot a bit. They’ve not taken the reins and set out the story they want to tell, so other people are doing it for them. They need to be clear, set out their stall and take us with them.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “This year’s Business Day at annual conference was a great success, attended by Labour’s cabinet, 500 business leaders, CEOs from a range of companies, international investors and international ambassadors, as well as leading global figures.
“This country has a stable, united government for the first time in years, which is exactly what businesses and investors were lacking under the chaos of the Tories. Labour is pro-business and pro-worker, and we will fix the foundations of our country with our programme for economic growth.”