Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds: Kemi Badenoch and I BOTH reckon we’d be better than Rishi Sunak!

Sharp dressed man: Jonathan Reynolds has a special appeal to ‘Red Wall’ voters

Labour has striven in recent years to reassure the business community it can be trusted with the economy. One man who has done his share of the heavy lifting is Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Business Secretary. Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Reynolds is a former trainee corporate lawyer who looks every bit the City type.

But his North-East working-class background might also resonate with those coveted ‘Red Wall’ voters the party lost in the 2019 General Election.

Our meeting place – the headquarters of industry lobbying group UK Finance in the heart of the Square Mile – was no doubt chosen to reinforce the impression that the party has turned the page on Corbynism and is now at ease with Britain’s business community. It was a timely reminder as Labour’s 2023 party conference gets underway today.

‘Most days I’m meeting with a business,’ Reynolds says. ‘Usually several in one day.’

Reynolds, who worked as both Shadow City minister and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary before his current role, goes to great lengths to emphasise the importance of business relationships, a stark contrast to the hard-Left era of Jeremy Corbyn and his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.

He even takes a pop at the Tories’ frayed relationship with business, which came under particular strain during Boris Johnson’s premiership. ‘Any government needs a good relationship with business,’ he says. ‘But many of these firms feel the current government has given up on having a positive dialogue.’

If Labour is also looking to wrestle the ‘aspirational’ label from the Tories, Reynolds would be a good figurehead.

Born and bred in Sunderland, his father was a firefighter and his mother worked for doorstep lender Provident Financial.

After graduating, his ambitions were briefly put on hold when he got his then-girlfriend pregnant, resulting in the birth of his first child. He then returned to education to study law.

In 2010, he was elected to the constituency of Stalybridge and Hyde on the eastern edge of Manchester and has remained its representative ever since.

The frontbencher appears to cut a much calmer figure in his personal life, telling me one of his favourite hobbies is gardening.

‘I think I am the only current Labour MP to win their local agricultural show,’ he chuckles.

He also, unusually, professes a liking for Tesco among the UK’s major supermarket chains, although he admits this may be purely down to its close proximity.

The word ‘stability’ pops up frequently in our chat, unsurprising after a year in which the UK saw a flurry of three Prime Ministers and an economic meltdown unleashed by the Liz Truss mini-budget.

Reynolds says a big issue hitting Britain at the moment is the lack of reaction to the Inflation Reduction Act – a package of measures signed by President Joe Biden that has poured billions of dollars of investment into the US’s healthcare and green energy sectors.

‘Businesses want a UK response to that,’ Reynolds says. ‘We can’t match the fiscal firepower of the US, but we need to become more competitive across the board.’

He says a key roadblock is the UK’s planning system, which has come under intense criticism from business leaders and activists for holding up housebuilding, infrastructure and business projects such as factories.

In July, our biggest property developers accused the Government of not tackling falling levels of housebuilding. In the previous month, the boss of the UK arm of McDonald’s blamed bureaucracy and red tape for curtailing the fast food chain’s expansion.

‘To be honest, with the planning system, both for homes and infrastructure, there is a real sense that we can’t do things in the UK any more. I find that frustrating.’

Does he blame the rise of Nimby – Not In My Backyard – habitual opposers of local construction projects, for the impasse? ‘Nimbyism is a factor,’ Reynolds says.

Despite this, he is adamant that things need to change in order to boost the UK’s competitiveness, warning that neighbouring countries have heavily focused on trying to lure firms away.

‘We have to be a country where you can build energy and transport infrastructure and if a business wants to make an investment their first choice is the UK,’ he says.

‘We have businesses telling me about the Choose France policy and how that is tempting them over, the Biden incentives in the US and how the Spanish government is trying to attract the automotive sector.

‘There needs to be a sense that the UK is getting out there.’

As an MP for a North-West constituency, Reynolds reserves his fiercest criticism for the Government’s handling of HS2, the high-speed rail line originally planned to link Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds to London.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced last week that the link to Manchester is being scrapped. Reynolds says: ‘To say we cannot build a new rail line, or that we’re going to build it partly but it’s not going to Manchester, is embarrassing.’

So is there any common ground between him and his Tory counterpart, Kemi Badenoch, who he hopes to replace as Business Secretary?

‘I think we both believe we could do a better job than Rishi Sunak,’ he jokes.

In policy terms, he highlights parts of a partnership deal signed between the UK and Singapore last month, particularly elements regarding sectors such as Artificial Intelligence. He also gives faint praise to some parts of a post-Brexit deal with Switzerland regarding professional services.

However, Reynolds stresses that trade policy should be more about ‘quality not quantity’.

Turning to the steel industry, he pushes back on the suggestion that net zero commitments championed by Labour would automatically lead to more shrinkage of the sector and job losses.

‘I think that would be an absolutely tragic place to go and the steel industry in the UK is smaller than you would expect for an economy of our size. I see a bright future for the sector if the Government gets it right. But I don’t think we’re currently going the right way.’

He says Labour’s strategy would be focused on how to protect investment made by taxpayers while working with private companies.

‘We need to reassure the public that it is money well spent. That investment shouldn’t just be a gift to the corporate sector.’

Reynolds says one of the post-Brexit realities is ‘putting more effort’ into attracting backers from the rest of the world, even if some of that cash comes from places with mixed records on human rights.

‘Not every country is a Western European-style democracy, but you have to engage. I don’t think that means ignoring our values and one of the ways we can promote them is by having a strong economy.’

He notes, however, that this will not mean giving other nations unfettered access to more sensitive industries. He says any Business Secretary ‘has to be willing’ to block takeovers that could imperil Britain’s security.But overall he is adamant that the UK must turn outward in order to push forward.

‘A strong UK is one that’s open to the world, but our strength requires investment and if I become Business and Trade Secretary it will be my job to go out there and get it.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk