The business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has reportedly dealt another blow to the scandal-hit Confederation of British Industry (CBI) by turning down an invitation to speak at the lobby group’s annual conference.
Badenoch’s team has told the CBI that she would not be able to address the conference due to scheduling clashes leading up to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt’s, autumn statement on 22 November, according to Sky News.
It leaves the CBI without a high-profile speaker at the annual event, which is scheduled to take place at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in London on 20 November. However, the Guardian understands that a speaker for the event – aimed at showing fruits of the organisations re-engagement efforts – may be announced in coming days.
The summit has in the past been a significant event for UK businesses, but had been rumoured to have been scrapped as the CBI tried to recover from the fallout of a string of sexual misconduct allegations.
In April, the Guardian revealed multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by members of the lobby group, including a woman’s claim that she was raped by a manager during a 2019 summer boat party on the River Thames, and a separate woman’s allegation that she was raped by two male colleagues when she worked at an overseas office of the CBI.
The then CBI director general, Tony Danker, was sacked in April, after separate allegations of misconduct were made against him, unrelated to the allegations of rape.
Since then, nearly 100 British companies have paused or suspended their membership, including the carmakers BMW, Ford and Jaguar Land Rover; the supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s; the asset managers Aviva, Fidelity and Schroders; the US banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan; and the oil companies Shell and BP.
The mass exodus nearly pushed the CBI towards collapse, forcing it to secure emergency funding from a series of banks last month. The lobby group was also temporarily frozen out by the government and Labour party, although engagement has since resumed.
Faced with plummeting subscriptions, the group launched a push at the start of the summer to trim its wage bill, with a third of staff – more than 100 people – expected to be laid off. Others have left voluntarily after the scandal. However, the CBI has since posted fresh job adverts as it tries to rebuild its image.
A spokesperson said: “Although we lost some members and saw others pause membership back in April, we’ve been pleased to see a steady stream of members unpausing and expect more to follow. And we continue to engage with members who’ve left to discuss returning to the CBI.”
They added that the group had 1,100 corporate and 150 trade association members which in turn represented 170,000 businesses.
Insiders views’ are mixed on what the future holds. Some are confident of the CBI’s ability to reinvent itself before the next general election, while others are more cautious, fearing that there is permanent damage to its prospects.
A key test of whether the group’s finances can be put on a sustainable path will come in January, when a fresh round of corporate members face the decision whether or not to renew their membership of the body.
The CBI spokesperson added: “We are looking forward to bringing members together next month to discuss the economic outlook and forthcoming general election.
“As we emerge from the party conferences and ahead of the chancellor’s autumn statement, this is the moment to harness political intelligence, economic insight and the business context to set out what business needs from the new UK government.
“Full details of the day’s events, panels and the speakers taking part will be published in due course.”
