Next Prime Minister must tackle 'slippage in standards in public life' South Yorkshire business leaders say
Worried business leaders in South Yorkshire are urging Conservative party members to choose a prime minister who will tackle the impact of Covid, Brexit and the cost of living crisis - and ‘the casual slippage in standards in public life that they would never tolerate as employers’.
The four chiefs of South Yorkshire’s Chambers of Commerce want those selecting a new leader to consider the needs of business at 'a critical time for the economy'. And they want someone who will 'rehabilitate Britain’s international reputation’.
Foreign secretary Liz Truss and former chancellor Rishi Sunak are vying to be the next prime minister following the resignation of Boris Johnson.
Some 180,000 Conservative party members will vote to decide the winner. The result is due on September 5.
An open letter signed by Dan Fell of Doncaster Chamber, Andrew Denniff of Barnsley & Rotherham Chamber and Alexis Krachai and Louisa Harrison-Walker of Sheffield Chamber, states: “Our new Prime Minister must grip the major challenges faced by companies in this region and beyond. Firms are struggling with the continued impacts of COVID and Brexit.
“The crises in the cost of doing business, consumer price inflation, disruptions to supply chains and travel from the ‘shortage economy’ are all laid bare in our latest Quarterly Economic Survey report.
“The situation demands action, but businesses see a national political establishment focused on itself. And they despair at the casual slippage in standards in public life that they would never tolerate as employers.
“The business community needs a leader who will tackle these priority economic issues and rehabilitate Britain’s international reputation.”
Despite this, South Yorkshire firms continue to grow and hire people, they add.
There must also be ‘tangible action and bold policy’ on levelling up not just ‘more of the pleasing rhetoric that businesses have heard many times before’.
The letter ends: “We need to look again at the scale and focus of investment in levelling-up priorities like infrastructure and industrial development. They must support us to deliver on the promise of our Local Skills Improvement Plan to transform our region into the leading, high-skilled, high-value economy we know it can be.”