Labour's 'smoked salmon offensive' that resulted in business endorsements - is it enough?

When Rachel Reeves gives her first speech of the election campaign today, there will not be any new announcements.

The shadow Chancellor has had one central aim ever since she took the job in May 2022 - building trust in the Labour party, and in her.

The first plank of Reeves' plan was to turn her into a credible candidate to be chancellor and so she repeatedly stressed her credentials, including her time as a Bank of England economist.

The second was to try to turn the party's reputation around for economic competence with her fiscal rules (although alongside it, a £28bn promise that did cause the party somewhat of a headache - I'll come back to that).

And finally, the third was to build up Labour's reputation with business.

Today's frontpage story in The Times - 'Labour wins backing of 120 business leaders' - is the culmination of work by teams behind the scenes, but led by two women who rarely get mentioned in the media: Vidhya Alakeson is Labour's director of external affairs, and Katie Martin is Reeves' chief of staff.

It should be noted that the list, while certainly eye-catching, doesn't include the CEOs who make up the FTSE100.

Sources argue leaders are less and less willing to wade into the increasingly controversial political waters as they desperately try to protect their brands.

But it is still a stark contrast to the Tories, who are struggling to get anything like the same endorsements from business.

Labour were clearly helped along the way by Liz Truss's mini-budget that hugely damaged the Tories' reputation for economic competence, but the work on the Labour side can't be ignored either.

It began in earnest in the autumn of 2022, when Jonathan Reynolds became shadow business secretary, with a background of reaching out to those in the financial sector who haven't historically tended to back Labour.

In a matter of months, led by the then new director of external affairs Alakeson - Keir Starmer, Reeves and Reynolds met the leaders of almost all the FTS250. Given the diary preference of opting for breakfast - this became known as the smoked salmon offensive.

Reeves was said to be particularly good at maintaining good relations with business leaders.

I've seen the transformation through the years. At a dinner with business CEOs in 2014, when Labour had a strong poll lead, I asked the group who they thought would be PM after the next election.

Every one of them said Cameron - and even with the risk of Brexit looming, that seemed to be their strong preference over an Ed Miliband premiership.

When I did a similar dinner a year ago, every single leader said they thought that Starmer would win (and largely seemed to want that).

At another event at the Bank of England with dozens of economists, only one raised their hand to expect a Tory victory.

Having attended almost every Labour conference in 15 years (bar the odd maternity leave), I've seen the change there too.

When I interviewed Reeves last year in Liverpool, the place was packed with business figures with a big waiting list for the party's business programme.

It hasn't all been plain sailing. In 2021, after a few days of focus on her fiscal responsibility credentials, Reeves told party conference (to a huge cheer) that she would be Britain's first green chancellor - borrowing £28bn a year to invest.

After coming under increasing attack by the Tories, particularly as borrowing costs spiked over the years, the party dropped the policy, but in a bumpy way.

A business conference at the Oval cricket ground that was the culmination of six months work was totally overshadowed by questions about the £28bn.

But still, the change is huge. Just look at the polls. On the question from YouGov of 'which party would be best at handling the economy' - the Tories had a 21 point lead over Labour in December 2019.

On May 6 2024, Labour was seven points ahead. That gap isn't as big as the overall poll lead, but it is still a dramatic turnaround. And one that Reeves wants to consolidate in this campaign.

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