Today Theresa May used her speech at the CBI annual conference to both reassure and inspire business leaders about Brexit Britain. In doing this, she also managed to upset a number of Brexiteers by suggesting — in the Q&A — that the government could pursue a ‘transitional deal’ with the EU as ‘people don’t want a cliff edge’ when we leave.
However, it was her main speech that provided the most newsworthy line. May appeared to drop her previous pledge to put workers on company boards. While she had promised to publish ‘plans to have not just consumers represented on company boards, but workers as well’, today she appeared to suffer temporary memory loss as she assured business leaders that ‘this is not about mandating works councils, or the direct appointment of workers or trade union representatives on boards’.
This u-turn is just one in a series of turnarounds for May. On becoming Prime Minister, May gave several speeches suggesting the need for a radical overhaul of the way businesses — and capitalism — worked in order to help those left behind by globalisation. Yet in recent weeks she has softened her language to be much more pro-business, with her speech at the Lord Mayor’s banquet a marked change from her conference speech where she criticised central banks. While her new approach will no doubt be pleasing to businesses, it will also lead to concern from the other side that her pledge to prioritise the ordinary working man wasn’t as sincere as it first seemed.
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