Tories bid for the business vote

The Conservatives today claimed that the majority of business leaders backed their call for less red tape and lower taxes, as the party launched its manifesto for business.

The Tory leader, Michael Howard, told the annual conference of the British Chambers of Commerce in central London: "Business needs government to ensure the basics. A government that spends within its means. A government that doesn't take risks by over-spending and over-borrowing. A government that won't hand over control of our interest rates to the European Central Bank."

Mr Howard pledged that Britain would "change direction" under a Tory government, away from an economy "burdened with all the regulation and red tape that weighs down on business in continental Europe" and toward a more American-style entrepreneurial model. "Europe should be a market for British business, not an economic model," he said.

Asking business leaders to imagine Britain five years into a Tory government, he concluded by promising to create "a country which recognises that personal responsibility is the bedrock of a healthy society". "A country where everyone can climb the ladder of opportunity. A country where the prosperity earned through work and risk-taking creates wealth for all. A Britain in which business can flourish."

Whether by choreography or chance, Mr Howard's policy launch was undermined by the public endorsement of Labour's handling of the economy by 63 of Britain's most successful business leaders.

Millionaire entrepreneur Sir Alan Sugar, Sir Gerry Robinson, the chairman of Allied Domecq; and United News & Media chief Lord Hollick were among the signatories to a letter praising the party for making the country a "more entrepreneurial society ... in which the starting of a business is easier, faster and cheaper than in many of our major competitors".

The Tory Treasury spokesman, George Osborne, however, dismissed suggestions that business leaders were backing Labour and questioned the motives of the party's ennobled business supporters.

"One or two of them are [backing Labour], and have been handsomely rewarded with peerages," he told the BBC. "A great majority of businessmen and businesswomen are exasperated by the increase in red tape, the increases in taxes that have happened under Labour."

The Tories' business manifesto promises that a Conservative government would seek to reverse the 15 new regulations a day it says Labour has imposed on business in the last six years by placing an annual limit of red tape and withdrawing from the EU social chapter.

The party also pledged to introduce a deregulation bill, slim down the Department of Trade and Industry into an "efficient champion of business" and force all civil servants involved in drawing up business regulation to spend at least three months working in the private sector.

Its other measures include the creation of a network of "super colleges" to boost vocational skills, the replacement of the "inefficient" Learning and Skills Council and the offer of £1,000 grants for up to 300,000 14-16-year-olds to help them combine GCSEs with vocational studies.

Labour dismissed the Tories' "flimsy" business manifesto as a "threat to stability, jobs and mortgages" and warned people not to put the Britain's economic stability at risk by voting Conservative.

Speaking at the same business conference as Mr Howard, the chancellor, Gordon Brown, said: "With difficult long-term decisions that in my view the country must stick with - the independence of the Bank of England, asymmetrical inflation targets, long-term fiscal rules, attention to long-term investment and also the obligations of the New Deal - our watchword is stability - yesterday, today and tomorrow. Stability - first, foremost and always."

Labour highlighted its economic credentials today by launching a poster showing a young couple outside a house with the slogan "if you value it, vote for it", and releasing a document on how it will boost growth in Britain's biggest cities. The party will publish its business manifesto on Thursday.