Category Archives: Confederation of British Industry (CBI)

US-style executive pay packets in UK would ‘risk higher inequality’

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Leading social scientists issue warning after call by business leaders and London Stock Exchange

More than 20 leading social scientists have warned the UK’s biggest investment companies and pension funds that allowing US-style executive pay packages could “create a significant risk of higher inequality” and “much worse lower levels of happiness, health and wellbeing across society”.

The academics said they had decided to speak out as an increasing number of British business leaders and the London Stock Exchange have argued for much higher pay awards to improve the UK’s competitiveness.

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Labour says it will stick with workers’ rights plans despite Mandelson remarks

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Party says it is committed to policies such as zero-hours ban after peer warned against ‘rushing’ changes

Labour has said it will keep its ban on zero-hours jobs and improvements to workers’ rights after the party peer Peter Mandelson warned against “rushing” through changes championed by trade unions.

Anneliese Dodds, the Labour chair, said the party was committed to the package to “make work pay” and get more money into people’s pockets, but that it would “continue to discuss” the plans with business and unions.

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CBI tells Jeremy Hunt to focus on green investment instead of tax cuts in budget

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Lobby group joins calls for chancellor to resist pre-election giveaways next month and spend on projects to boost economy

A leading business lobby group has urged Jeremy Hunt to resist calls for large-scale tax cuts in his budget next month, saying the government needs to avoid “short-termism” and devote spending to projects that boost the economy.

Adding its voice to a growing clamour for green investment, the Confederation of British Industry said pre-election giveaways at the budget should be kept to a minimum to allow for a surge in spending to achieve net zero.

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Misconduct claims tipped CBI into ‘near death experience’, says president

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Rupert Soames says Guardian revelations over sexual misconduct claims were ‘appalling shock’ but is bullish about the future

The new president of the Confederation of British Industry has admitted the Guardian’s revelations of sexual misconduct were “an appalling shock” that tipped the lobbying group into a “near-death experience’’.

Rupert Soames, the City grandee recently appointed president of the CBI, said that this newspaper’s revelations about sexual misconduct at the organisation had triggered an existential crisis – one he is trying to rescue it from.

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CBI warns of ‘material uncertainty’ over future after sexual misconduct claims

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In a statement released with annual accounts, business lobby group says it has had to deal with ‘exceptional costs’

The Confederation of British Industry has said it is suffering a “considerable level of financial stress” and there remains “material uncertainty” that it can continue operating in the long term after sexual misconduct allegations.

The scandal-hit business lobby group said it was “emerging from an unprecedented situation” that had led to “exceptional costs”, warning there was also “material uncertainty arising from the CBI’s financial performance since the year end”.

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UK business secretary Kemi Badenoch turns down CBI invitation

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Latest blow leaves scandal-hit lobby group without a high-profile speaker at annual conference

The business secretary Kemi Badenoch has reportedly dealt another blow to the scandal-hit Confederation of British Industry (CBI) by turning down an invite to speak at the lobby group’s annual conference.

Badenoch’s team have told the CBI that she would not be able to address the conference due to scheduling clashes leading up to the chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement on 22 November, according to Sky News.

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CBI to step back early from top firms’ boardroom diversity initiative

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High-profile companies reportedly discussed cutting ties with the business lobby group

The Confederation of British Industry will step back earlier than planned from its role in a boardroom diversity initiative involving the UK’s biggest companies, as the business lobby group struggles to recover from sexual misconduct allegations.

The CBI had been at the heart of the Change the Race Ratio campaign, which champions racial and ethnic minority representation on UK company boards and leadership teams, with some of its staff helping to run it.

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CBI frozen out of meetings with other leading UK business lobby groups

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Efforts to regain place at intersection of business and government after scandal complicated by refusals to engage

The Confederation of British Industry has been frozen out of regular meetings with other leading business lobby groups, hampering its fight for survival after a sexual misconduct scandal.

Formerly Britain’s leading voice for business, the CBI has been battling to overhaul its culture and regain trust after multiple allegations of misconduct were made by female employees, including two who said they were raped. Those allegations resulted in an exodus of members from John Lewis to Aviva and led Labour and the Conservatives to cut ties with the organisation.

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Labour shadow minister meets CBI boss, suggesting boycott may be ending

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Jonathan Reynolds and new DG Rain Newton-Smith hold ‘warm’ meeting after party cut ties due to sexual misconduct scandal

The Labour party has moved closer to ending its boycott of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), in an early sign that steps to rehabilitate the crisis-hit UK lobby group may be working.

Labour on Sunday confirmed its shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, had met the new CBI director general, Rain Newton-Smith, last week.

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Labour cuts ties with CBI and says lobby group needs ‘root and branch reform’

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Flood of Confederation of British Industry members have quit since allegations reported by the Guardian

The Labour party has cut all ties with the Confederation of British Industry after the Guardian’s revelations about alleged sexual misconduct by male employees at the lobbying group.

The CBI experienced an exodus of major member businesses at the end of last week, including the insurer Aviva, the retailer John Lewis, the manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover and the banking firm Natwest Group. Companies said the lobby group was unable to carry out its role effectively following the allegations, after a second woman alleged to the Guardian that she was raped by two male colleagues when she worked at the CBI.

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CBI to suspend operations until June after exodus of top UK businesses

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Companies from John Lewis to NatWest quit membership body after Guardian revelations over alleged sexual misconduct

The Confederation of British Industry has announced it is to mothball its operations until June after the Guardian’s revelations about alleged sexual misconduct by male employees at the lobbying group led to an exodus of businesses including John Lewis and NatWest.

The CBI’s board said it was suspending all membership and policy activity until an extraordinary meeting in June, when members will vote on its future and purpose.

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CBI president apologises over sexual misconduct allegations

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Brian McBride says business lobby group was on firm ground in sacking director general Tony Danker

The president of Britain’s most influential business lobby organisation has apologised for a spate of sexual misconduct allegations and “toxic culture” that has left the Confederation of British Industry fighting for its future.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Brian McBride apologised to those alleging various forms of sexual misconduct, which span several years, by senior figures at the organisation, including an allegation of rape, first reported in a Guardian investigation last month.

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How the tide turned against the CBI’s director general

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Sacked chief says he is ‘shocked’ and allegations have been ‘distorted’

The director general of Britain’s most prominent lobby group is not leaving quietly. On Tuesday morning, hours after learning of his dismissal from the Confederation of British Industry, Tony Danker posted a series of tweets in which he revealed he was “shocked” at the decision, which followed allegations of misconduct.

Some present and former staff did not share in his sense of surprise, they told the Guardian, four weeks after this newspaper first revealed the allegations against him.

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City of London police open inquiry into alleged sexual misconduct at CBI

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Investigation begins after the Guardian reports on complaints against senior figures at business organisation

City of London police have launched an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at the Confederation of British Industry in the wake of the Guardian’s reports of complaints against senior figures at the organisation.

Britain’s most prominent business group is battling to secure its future after more than a dozen women employed by the CBI claimed to have been victims of various forms of sexual misconduct, including an allegation of rape during a staff party.

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Businesses in north of England ask ministers for help to hit net zero

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Leaders of Drax, Siemens and others call for green growth to be a priority and ‘regional disparities’ to be closed

Business leaders in the north of England have written to the prime minister, chancellor and energy secretary asking for help to reach net zero.

Big names including Drax, Siemens, Peel, Manchester airport, the CBI and all 11 local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) in the north signed a letter urging the government to prioritise green growth in the north.

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Revealed: new claims of sexual misconduct and ‘toxic culture’ at CBI

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Exclusive: More than a dozen women raise concerns about different men – with one woman alleging she was raped at staff party

More than a dozen women claim to have been victims of various forms of sexual misconduct by senior figures at the Confederation of British Industry, including one who alleges she was raped at a staff party on a boat on the River Thames.

The women, who all work at the CBI or worked there in recent years, approached the Guardian with fresh concerns about what they describe as a toxic culture at Britain’s most influential business lobbying organisation.

An attempted sexual assault by a manager at the same staff boat party in 2019.

A senior manager sending explicit images to junior female staff over several years.

Other senior managers behaving unprofessionally and inappropriately towards much younger female colleagues: alleged instances include a former board member touching a female employee’s bottom and making what was seen as a sexualised remark to another woman in earshot of several colleagues.

A manager propositioning women after they felt he pushed them to drink more alcohol, while they were already drunk.

Widespread use of cocaine at official CBI events.

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Sunak should expand free childcare to tackle workforce shortages, says CBI

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Business group says as much as £9bn of investment is needed to improve system

Rishi Sunak should funnel billions of pounds into free childcare to help get more parents into work to tackle acute workforce shortages, according to Britain’s leading business group.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said the government urgently needed to announce extra funding and changes to childcare and early years support, arguing that a more accessible and affordable system was an immediate economic priority.

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Starmer rules out taking UK back into single market or customs union if Labour win election – UK politics live

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Latest updates: Labour’s Keir Starmer is speaking to the CBI

Starmer says Britain is trapped in a “vicious cycle of stagnation”.

The UK has had the worst record for growth in centuries, he says. He says a new model is needed. And this should be a turning point.

They put our public finances in a perilous position, wasted the chance to transform our potential in an era of low interest rates, and created an economy with weak foundations.

But the war didn’t ban onshore wind. The war didn’t scrap home insulation. And the war didn’t stall British nuclear energy.

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Sunak tries to pacify Brexiters but keeps door open to closer EU ties

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Prime minister stresses ‘enormous benefits and opportunities’ of Brexit before business leaders

Rishi Sunak has laid down a red line for any new attempts to improve post-Brexit trade with the EU and managed to quell a rebellion among furious Tories – but kept open the possibility of closer ties with Brussels.

The prime minister dismissed suggestions the UK could pursue a Swiss-style relationship with the bloc, while a senior business leader called the row a “sideshow” and No 10 sources pointed the finger of blame at the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.

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Immigration is still the nettle preventing Tory detente with business

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Rishi Sunak’s visit to CBI conference found old allies keen to mend fences, but impeded by hard politics of immigration

Amid the steady grey Birmingham drizzle, Britain’s leading business lobby group tried to walk a careful path on immigration.

Members of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), present in greater numbers than in recent years at its annual conference, have been clamouring for more flexibility on hiring foreign workers, as a tight labour market wreaks havoc on their businesses and drives up wages.

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