If the Tories won’t champion business and enterprise, who will?

The well-known saying goes, ‘there is nothing to fear but fear itself’. This certainly should be the mantra of Brexit. Disruptive as it might be, Brexit should be the reset button for an enterprise economy, a bright new future of growth and entrepreneurialism, open and free markets – in effect a ‘New Model Economy’ – but few are making the case for this. Certainly, the government isn’t.

When I became director general of the British Chambers of Commerce over six years ago, one of my first media interviews led me to say that I thought there was no political party in the UK that truly represented business. By that I meant enterprise and entrepreneurialism.

To put it crudely, the Conservatives represent capital in the form of the established part of the city and landowners (a significant proportion of the land in England is still owned by the descendants of William the Conqueror) and the vested interests of multinationals.