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Until 2022, Iain Anderson was the LGBT Business Champion for the Conservative government. Now the H/Advisors Cicero co-founder is co-author of Labour’s “partnership plan” for business. Ahead of his CA Summit appearance, he tells Lysanne Currie why patience, cooperation and good governance are key to growth

Iain Anderson has just returned from the Labour Party conference in Liverpool when we speak. “The buzz was about the Budget,” he says, “but the mood was one of reset. A new start after the hard news of the summer.”

Businessman Anderson is still a relative newcomer to the Labour fold. In 2023, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of communications agency H/Advisors Cicero, and former LGBT Business Champion in Boris Johnson’s government (a role he had already quit one year earlier), switched to Labour after 39 years of Conservative membership in a row over LGBT and business rights.

His new party’s new government hasn’t enjoyed an easy start, however. “The honeymoon is over” was being whispered even before most Labour MPs had arranged their pencils on their new desks. As ministers were getting to grips with both the practicalities of being in power and the situation they’d inherited, an electorate impatient for change and a business community desperate to kickstart growth started to wonder when the good news would begin. Anderson understands all sides, but argues they’ve made a positive start and that it’s still too early to judge.

 “There is an opportunity for the UK to become the place to invest, if people can see a stable approach and the ambition to be a global leader”

“It’s TikTok politics – everybody wants an immediate answer,” says Anderson. “Would you judge the performance of a FTSE CEO before you’ve even ended the first quarter? No. The market would only take a view after about 18 months.

“What have we seen so far since the election? Stock markets up. Pound up. Markets watch politics and have responded well to a new government that’s committed to stability and long termism in terms of policies and the people – as in the report I wrote.”

Anderson is talking about A New Partnership: A long-term plan for government business relations to power our economy and society, the plan for business he wrote for the then opposition party in January. Key to growth and recovery is a partnership between public and private sectors, one that has been missing for more than a decade.  

First cracks

“It all went wrong after the Olympics,” says Anderson. “The high watermark was 2012. In 2014, we had the independence referendum and politicians on both sides of that argument tried to pull businesses to come out for or against. That started to mash things up in terms of the relationship. Then there was a general election in 2015, then the Brexit referendum in 2016 and, again, politicians tried to pull businesses into supporting or opposing. The whole business-to-government relationship has not worked for over 10 years. Resetting it will come, not by quick fixes, but by having a long-term approach.”

Anderson believes that a considered “reset” will not only bring domestic growth but boost the UK’s position internationally too. “I can get very, very optimistic,” he smiles. “There is an opportunity for the UK to become the place to invest, if people can see a stable approach and the ambition to be a global leader. It’s crucial now to make the right policy choices.”

Anderson believes strongly in the integrity of politicians. “Most go into public service because they deeply care about the country,” he says, adding that the electorate needs to take both a leap of faith and a long-term view. “We need policies to change and ministers to have clear intent and missions.”

He is keen on the adoption of system-wide thinking, which he believes is already in play. Anderson uses Wes Streeting’s attitude to the NHS as an example, seeing the NHS not just as a health provider but also an economic agency. Citing the 800,000 people lost from the labour market due to ill health since the pandemic, Anderson says: “The health system isn’t working. We need to get it working to get people healthy again, to get back into the workplace, to drive productivity.

“People have this feeling of hopelessness, but I’m now optimistic that with system-wide thinking, missions and long-term plans, and with no more distracting constitutional politics, hopelessness can be replaced with action.”

It’s a big ask but Anderson’s view isn’t just aimed at the public sector and large companies; he believes smaller businesses also have the ear of government. “For every business and economic policy, the SME sector is being consulted and listened to,” he says.

He cites the new package of measures aimed at tackling one of the biggest obstacles to growth in the SME sector – the scourge of late payments, which costs SMEs £22,000 a year on average and a combined 56 million hours of lost productivity. The government plans to consult on tough new laws which will hold larger firms to account and get cash flowing back to the businesses it’s owed to. 

“Tackling late payments was in the manifesto and they’ve got on with it,” says Anderson. “The small business groups I talk to are delighted and the prospect of big companies being named and shamed will, I think, create better behaviour.”

“The whole business-to-government relationship has not worked for over 10 years”

Better, more ethical behaviour is key to firming up the foundations of Britain as a good long-term investment project, Anderson believes. And he argues that rather than being bad for business, the new proposals about workers’ rights will also improve the UK’s stability, which is an essential ingredient for that much-needed investment and growth.

Some argue, however, that the Employment Rights Bill is anti-business. Its measures include new rights relating to parental leave and flexible working, a ban on zero-hour contracts (unless requested by the worker) and the introduction of rights such as maternity leave, sick pay and protection against unfair dismissal from the first day. 

Some business organisations argue this will stunt growth. But that doesn’t wash with Anderson. “From what I’ve seen so far, Johnny Reynolds [Jonathan Reynolds, Business and Trade Secretary] is all over this and the package will not even affect good businesses. I heard him talking at conference about the unfair dismissal element and he understood that sometimes it doesn't work out with people, and the government is not going to get in the way of that. I’ve been in business now for over 20 years and you know pretty early on when a relationship isn’t working.”

If a company’s ethics are a bit wobbly, however, the bill might cause some sleepless nights. “Maybe then you will need to look yourself in the mirror,” suggests Anderson. He insists that underpinning ethics in business is not only the right thing to do but is essential for growth, creating a more stable country and making it a safer place to invest – especially when much of the world is volatile.

Anderson also agrees with the government’s approach to some of the industrial action of the past few years: “We’re only going to get patients well again if doctors are in hospitals, and we’re only going to get people to work if the trains are working. This government is going to be judged on whether the country is working again.”  

Getting the country working again is of course stage one, but for UK plc to really flourish, it needs entrepreneurial creativity. Anderson believes we have it and rebuts the suggestion that Keir Starmer lacks the vision to truly unleash it.

“I only really got to know him in the spring of last year, and he’s very honest and self-aware. He’s not from business but he works so closely with Rachel Reeves and Johnny Reynolds, and whenever I have presented ideas you can feel him locking in the concept. What they understand is that we need to get growth moving in a way that is not some sort of rollercoaster – too exhausting! – but a more sustained economic trajectory. If we could get more stability, more system-wide thinking, better governance around policies instructed, then that would be good.”

Energy boost

One announcement that has pleased Anderson is that the government’s energy investment body, GB Energy, will be based in his hometown of Aberdeen.

“I’m delighted,” he laughs. “It’s great news. There’s a bold ambition for the north-east to be the global leader in energy transition and I think it’s very possible. Aberdeen was the obvious place, of course. It’s got an investment base and an academic research capability that’s wrapped around energy – some of the best brains in the world are there. It’s a massive opportunity and I’m looking forward to supporting it and doing what I can to drive it forward.

“The oil and gas revolution appeared in the mid-1970s and changed Aberdeen from a fishing and farming community – now we’re moving to another new phase. This is long-term policy in action – an example not just of what people are going to be doing in Aberdeen, but what the country can do more broadly.

“The job at hand is to rebuild our country. After everything that’s happened it really is no more complicated than that. If people can see economic opportunity ahead, if they can see something that they haven’t seen for years – steadily rising incomes and opportunities – then yes, we’ve got a great chance.” 

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Iain Anderson will be talking at the CA Summit about business under the new government. Register here