Two problems with Rachel Reeves’s bid to woo businesses

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has promised to tackle what businesses tend to fear the most: instability. ‘In recent years, corporation tax has gone up and down like a yo-yo, while the government has papered over the cracks with short-term fixes like the super-deduction,’ Reeves told the manufacturing group Make UK’s annual conference this morning.

Under a Labour government, she pledged, there will be a clear ‘roadmap for tax which lasts over a parliament’. Reeves said this would give business leaders a better sense of what to expect, hopefully creating an atmosphere for investment.

Reeves is on a mission to lure the business community over to Labour. This morning showed how she is honing her message, warning about the risks to the UK economy if it gets ‘trapped in a cycle of low growth, lost confidence and weak demand’.