Wed, Nov 23, 2016 page10

• UK’s May courts business to ward off Brexit exodus

  • Reuters, LONDON
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  British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday set out plans to get big business behind her Brexit strategy, toning down plans to put employees on company boards and promising to spend billions of pounds on science, technology and research.

  In return, May told business leaders at a conference hosted by the Confederation of British Industry that they needed to keep up their own investment, embrace corporate governance reforms and help spread prosperity across the country.

  The strength of Britain’s US$2.3 trillion economy was thrown into doubt following the shock vote to leave the EU, handing May the tasks of winning back an electorate fed up with the “status quo” and persuading businesses not to move abroad.

  Courting the support of business leaders who have bridled at her sometimes combative approach on issues such as tax avoidance and executive pay, May said that Britain’s workers had demanded change by voting to leave the EU.

  “The reputation of business as a whole has been bruised,” May said, citing research showing only 35 percent of low-income workers trust business. “The behavior of a limited few has damaged the reputation of the many. And fair or not, it is clear that something has to change.”

  May said a decision by Facebook to expand its UK presence by hiring 500 new employees, on the heels of a decision by Google to build a new hub in London, was a vote of confidence, but said businesses still had to do more to prove a skeptical public that capitalism worked for them.

  Despite her tough tone, May watered down one of the central proposals of her campaign to take over from former British prime minister David Cameron in July: a plan to put employees on company boards.

  “While it is important that the voices of workers and consumers should be represented, I can categorically tell you that this is not about mandating works councils, or the direct appointment of workers or trade union representatives on boards,” May said.

  She said the government was committed to worker representation, but open to different ways of doing it, easing fears among some business leaders and lobbyists that the government could legislate to enforce mandatory representation.

  WELCOMED

  One FTSE 100 chief executive, who asked not to be named, on Monday told reporters that they welcomed the change in tone and said the government might have realized that a rigid approach was too difficult to introduce.

  Seeking to reassure businesses, May pledged to address concerns that Britain could fall off a “cliff edge” into uncertain trading conditions after leaving the EUas part of her Brexit negotiations.

  She reiterated her commitment to having the lowest corporation tax among the world’s 20 largest economies, having previously said she would reduce the headline rate from 20 percent to 17 percent by 2020.

  Asked about the possibility that the US could cut rates as low as 15 percent and whether Britain would match that, May’s spokeswoman said any such talk was “speculative.”
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