Reform UK’s charm offensive towards business will step up a gear on Monday when the party’s head of policy Zia Yusuf joins the speakers at the CBI’s annual conference.
It will be the first time Nigel Farage’s party has addressed a major business event and is seen as a further sign of its growing influence at the heart of corporate Britain.
Mr Yusuf will take part in an on-stage question and answer session, adding the party’s voice alongside other conference speakers, Peter Kyle, the Business Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, and Daisy Cooper, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Business leaders gather in London just days before the Chancellor delivers her Budget and amid concerns that she may add further costs on top of last year’s £24 billion, mainly through the hike in employers’ national insurance contributions.
The Labour government’s tax hikes and manifesto u-turns have seen its popularity plummet and helped Reform become a “credible competitor”, according to one senior business figure.
Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, has been actively courting the business vote, not least in Scotland where there is said to be a growing level of support for the party, particularly with regard to its policies on taxes and red tape.
Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI’s chief executive, described the party as “an important force in our politics”.
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