The top fund manager Helena Morrissey has raised concerns with the UK prime minister that the scandal at the Confederation of British Industry could deter women from entering the City.
It came as the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said the government would not wait for the crisis at the CBI to abate before engaging with businesses. Relations with the lobby group are suspended after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by its staff were revealed by the Guardian.
Rishi Sunak was taking questions from executives at the Business Connect event in London, where the government had gathered 200 business leaders, when Morrissey, told him she was “personally worried that this might put women off joining [the] industry”.
“We need everyone to feel they’ll be respected and included if they join industry,” said the leading City financier, who is also a campaigner for equal pay and opportunities. “It’s a bit of the elephant in the room but we’re meeting as horrible allegations swell around the CBI.
“I’m not expecting you to comment on that but I am personally worried that this might put women off joining industry, and I wondered if you’re concerned about that and if there’s anything that might help in the future as the dust settles?”
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is the UK’s most prominent business lobbying organisation. It is a not-for-profit organisation founded by royal charter in 1965, after a merger of older employer bodies.
It claims “unrivalled” access to government. It also claims to have the biggest number of policy specialists outside of Whitehall, the seat of the British government, in order to support its 190,000 business members, which are the chief source of its income. Its total income was £25m in 2021, of which £22m was from membership fees.
Its membership is composed of direct members and members of other trade bodies.
Its 1,500 direct members are businesses that actively hold membership. Fees vary significantly: top-tier businesses can pay £90,000 annually, some mid-sized companies pay half this price and smaller companies pay far less.
The bulk of its membership comes via trade bodies, and it counts these memberships within its own 190,000 total.
The lobby group has access to the prime minister and cabinet, and campaigns on issues ranging from funding for childcare to tax and skills. Its relationship with the UK government was stretched severely by Brexit, with its access to No 10 much curtailed. A remark attributed to the former prime minister Boris Johnson – “fuck business” – was considered to be aimed at efforts by the CBI and others to try to influence the post-Brexit UK-EU trade agreement.
The organisation sought to rebuild ties with the government during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, including working alongside trade unions and No 10 on developing the furlough scheme.
The CBI is governed by a president and an executive committee, which, in normal times, is chaired by the director general. It also has a board of non-executive directors, which the director general sits on.
Anna Isaac
Sunak responded: “I have two daughters. I want to make sure that they grow up in an economy, in a society where every opportunity is available for them. And that’s what we all want to do.”
He said the government was working to support women becoming successful entrepreneurs and cited a review into female entrepreneurship carried out by NatWest chief executive, Alison Rose.
Hunt later told journalists at the gathering that the government would not “wait for a reincarnation of the CBI or the CBI itself to get back on its feet to engage with business, we want to engage the whole time, every week, every day”.
The chancellor said: “There’s no point engaging with the CBI when their own members have deserted them in droves. So we want to engage with a body that speaks for business, it’s incredibly important for me, when I’m constructing budgets to have someone I can turn to who speaks for British business.”
Hunt said that government should not be involved in that process and that businesses would have to decide “who they want to be their principal voice”, adding: “We’re obviously very concerned about the allegations of what’s happened at the CBI, very, very serious.
“We would like to be able to engage with business through a representative body when we can, but we’re not stopping. We’re perfectly capable of engaging business without those [bodies]. And that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
At the earlier event with Sunak, Gerry Murphy, the chair of the luxury fashion group Burberry, criticised the prime minister for his decision, as chancellor, to remove tax-free shopping for tourists, describing it as a “spectacular own goal”.
Murphy said it had made the UK “the least attractive shopping destination in Europe”, with virtually every other big destination in Europe offering VAT refunds.
He said Burberry had experienced a much stronger recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic in Paris, Milan and Munich than in the UK, adding: “We are actively exporting business as a result of that policy.”
Sunak said the government was “here to listen” and that he would take Murphy’s comments away.
The advertising tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell said “there needs to be a change” to the VAT policy. Sorrell also said that “brand Britain was damaged last year” amid the changes in Tory leadership and called for lower taxes to support businesses; a renewed campaign to help British firms abroad and an increased focus on business ties with countries in Asia and Latin America.
The event, organised before the CBI decided to suspend all policy and membership activity, aimed to foster links between industry and government, with 20 ministers in attendance.
Some of the City’s highest profile executives were in attendance including Barclays chief, CS Venkatakrishnan, ITV boss, Carolyn McCall, and Tim Steiner, the chief executive of online retailer Ocado.
Murphy said: “It’s great to see the Conservative government obviously more business friendly than some predecessor administrations.”
Boris Johnson’s government had a fractious relationship with business as the government navigated issues including Brexit and the Covid pandemic.
