Britain’s future prosperity depends on backing entrepreneurs, family businesses and employers who create jobs, opportunity and stronger communities.
For too long, British politics has presented a false choice.
We have been told that governments must choose between supporting business and supporting workers; between economic growth and social justice; between enterprise and fairness.
I have never accepted that argument.
Economic growth and social justice are not competing ambitions. They depend upon one another. A successful economy must create opportunity, decent work and rising living standards. A fair society must give people and businesses the confidence to invest, employ and grow.
That belief has shaped the work of SME4Labour since it was founded in 2017.
Our purpose has always been straightforward: to give small and medium-sized businesses, family firms, entrepreneurs and employers a stronger voice in the Labour movement, while building better relationships between business, workers, policymakers and communities.
We have never asked Labour to abandon its principles.
We have argued that supporting enterprise, creating jobs and backing responsible businesses are part of those principles.
Britain’s business backbone
At the start of 2025, the United Kingdom had approximately 5.7 million private-sector businesses. Small and medium-sized enterprises accounted for 99.85 per cent of the total business population, 60 per cent of private-sector employment and 51 per cent of private-sector turnover.
Those figures represent far more than economic activity.
They represent the café owner opening before sunrise, the independent retailer serving their neighbourhood, the family-run restaurant employing local people, the manufacturer investing in new equipment, the builder, electrician, accountant, barber, florist and technology entrepreneur creating opportunities for others.
Many of these businesses train apprentices, support local charities, sponsor grassroots sport, strengthen high streets and provide services that communities rely upon.
They are not simply businesses. They are part of the social fabric of Britain.
When a small business succeeds, the benefits extend beyond its balance sheet. It creates employment, builds confidence, encourages investment and strengthens the community around it.
Every successful business represents someone who took a risk, invested their savings, believed in an idea and decided to create opportunities not only for themselves but for others.
That entrepreneurial spirit deserves to be celebrated.
Opportunity creates prosperity
My own story explains why I care so deeply about this question.
I arrived in Britain as a refugee with little more than hope. Britain gave me opportunity. Labour gave me purpose. Business gave me independence.
Those opportunities enabled me to build businesses, raise a family and later serve my community as a Labour councillor.
But my experience also taught me that talent is everywhere, while opportunity is not always evenly distributed.
Every child should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Every entrepreneur should have the opportunity to build a successful business. Every worker should have the opportunity to develop new skills, earn a decent living and build a better future.
Where someone begins life should never determine where they finish.
That is not only an economic argument. It is a moral one.
A new opportunity for Labour
Andy Burnham’s leadership gives Labour the chance to build a new relationship between government, business, workers and communities.
In his first speech as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham spoke about a new political and economic model, greater collaboration, reindustrialisation and using public procurement to support British industry.
His decision to establish No10 North in Manchester and revive the National Economic Council also sends an important signal: economic decisions should not be made exclusively in Westminster. Growth, investment and opportunity must reach every postcode.
That approach should place small businesses at its centre.
The Government has already set out a long-term plan for SMEs, including action on late payments, access to finance, business support, high streets, skills, exports and public procurement.
It has also set targets for Government departments to deliver more than £7.4 billion a year in direct spending with small and medium-sized businesses by 2028.
That is an important commitment. But the test will be whether smaller businesses can actually access those contracts, whether opportunities are advertised in a fair way, whether contracts are divided into manageable lots and whether suppliers are paid promptly.
The Government has also expanded the Growth Guarantee Scheme, with the aim of helping an additional 12,000 SMEs each year access finance, alongside £500 million of support for innovative businesses and scale-ups.
These measures are welcome. However, many business owners still struggle to secure finance, manage cash flow and navigate complicated systems. The Government must ensure that support is accessible not only to companies with specialist advisers, but also to the owner-managed businesses working late into the evening to keep their doors open.
Business and workers succeed together
Labour should proudly champion enterprise.
The Labour Party was founded to improve the lives of working people. That mission remains essential. But improving living standards also requires a growing economy, and a growing economy requires investment, confidence and businesses that are willing to employ and expand.
Successful entrepreneurs are not the opposite of social justice.
They help make social justice possible.
Every business that grows can create new jobs. Every apprentice employed can begin a new career. Every investment can strengthen a local economy.
That does not mean accepting a model of growth based on low pay, insecure work or weak standards. It means building an economy in which responsible employers, workers and trade unions have a shared interest in success.
Businesses need skilled, motivated and valued employees. Workers need successful businesses that can invest, grow and provide secure employment.
When employers and employees succeed together, Britain succeeds.
That is why strong employment rights and strong support for smaller employers should go together. Businesses need clear rules, practical guidance and timely support to comply. Workers need confidence that their rights will be respected and enforced.
Turning ambition into practical action
The Government’s business plan includes important measures: a Fair Payments Code, support for lower business rates in retail, hospitality and leisure, the Small Business Multiplier freeze, High Street Rental Auction powers, Skills England and a new Growth and Skills Levy.
The Prime Minister has also announced a 20 per cent business rates cut for pubs, clubs and live music venues in England from April 2027. That is a welcome recognition of the role that hospitality and community venues play in our high streets.
But more must be done.
For many independent businesses, the business rates system remains too closely tied to property values rather than the ability of a business to pay. The Government should continue working towards a fairer long-term system that supports high streets without placing an unfair burden on bricks-and-mortar businesses.
Hospitality also deserves a stronger offer. It is a major source of employment and opportunity, particularly for young people and those entering the workforce.
I continue to support a temporary reduction in hospitality VAT from 20 per cent to 10 per cent. Properly designed and time-limited, such a measure could help businesses lower prices, protect jobs, encourage investment and support high streets while families continue to face pressure on household budgets.
The Government should also:
- Enforce fair and prompt payment throughout public and private supply chains.
- Make public procurement easier for smaller and community-rooted businesses.
- Ensure that the Growth and Skills Levy works for SMEs, not only large employers.
- Expand access to affordable finance outside London and the South East.
- Support independent businesses facing antisocial behaviour, crime and rising operating costs.
- Give local authorities the powers and resources to support thriving high streets.
- Make regulation clearer, more proportionate and easier for small employers to understand.
- Use devolution to ensure that regional and local business voices shape economic policy.
The Government has made a start. The next step is to make sure that its ambitions are felt in every town, city and neighbourhood.
Labour’s natural home
Labour should be the natural home of small business not because it copies the Conservative Party’s old language of deregulation, but because it offers something more ambitious.
Labour can stand for enterprise and fairness.
It can support wealth creation while ensuring that prosperity is shared.
It can back responsible employers while protecting workers.
It can reform business taxation while investing in public services.
It can support entrepreneurs while ensuring that opportunity is available to people from every background.
That is the partnership Britain needs.
The future of our economy will not be built only in large corporations, financial centres or government departments. It will be built in high streets, workshops, restaurants, offices, studios, farms, warehouses and family businesses across the country.
Britain does not lack talent, ambition or ideas.
What has too often been lacking is a fair distribution of opportunity.
Under Andy Burnham’s leadership, Labour has the opportunity to build an economy that is more productive, more democratic and more inclusive.
That means backing the businesses that create jobs, supporting the workers who make those businesses succeed and ensuring that growth reaches every community.
Labour should not be nervous about saying this clearly:
Britain needs a Labour Party that is proudly pro-worker and proudly pro-enterprise.
Those ambitions do not divide us.
They belong together.