Labour shadow business secretary Angela Eagle launches new business advisory council chaired by Uphold chief executive Anthony Watson
Labour's shadow business secretary Angela Eagle has taken steps to repair her party's relationship with British businesses, by announcing today that she will convene a new group of business leaders to advise Labour politicians.
Labour's Business and Enterprise Advisory Council will be chaired by Anthony Watson, who is the president and chief executive of Uphold, a cloud-based fintech firm.
According to today's announcement from Labour, the council will meet quarterly to "discuss and develop ideas and to help recalibrate Labour’s relationship with the business community".
It follows a similar model to Prime Minister David Cameron's Business Advisory Group, which meets four times a year and counts BP chief executive Bob Dudley, Legal & General boss Nigel Wilson and Easyjet chief executive Carolyn McCall among its members.
According to Labour, the party will announce more members of the new advisory council "in the coming weeks".
Commenting on today's announcement, Eagle said she was "delighted" to launch the group "which will assist Labour in reaching out to and building partnerships with the business community as we seek to devise workable and deliverable policies that provide the solutions to the pressing issues impacting business and industry".
"It’s great that Anthony has agreed to chair this group which will help forge a new vision for a dynamic industrial strategy, because he has the fresh ideas and a proven track record of putting innovation and ethics at the heart of business practices," Eagle added.