Active listening made Labour’s SME Sunday a remarkably authentic business-focused event

The very first SME Sunday took place today as part of the Labour Party Annual Conference 2023. The event was unexpectedly invigorating with MPs hosting roundtables on a variety of issues facing small businesses – and, crucially, listening closely.

Today’s SME Sunday - a new innovation introduced by Labour at the start of its Annual Conference 2023 - was unexpectedly invigorating and showed the appetite of the party to strengthen links with the business community.

Despite some initial cynicism, the diversity of people and positive energy in the room was immediately striking.

Opening comments from Deputy Leader Angela Rayner MP emphasised Labour’s determination to be the party of workers and of business, with a vision to halt the poverty of ambition among the Tories.  

A panel with Darren Jones MP, Tulip Siddiq MP and Rushanara Ali MP, chaired by Charlotte Keenan from Goldman Sachs, underlined plans to bring stability and consistency. Ali said:

“99% of UK businesses are SMEs but SMEs are not credited for being wealth creators. We will introduce credible policies, the right mix of funds to enable scale ups and create confidence and stability.”

But it was during the SME Sunday Roundtables where the real innovation happened.

Eighteen discussions on a wide range of issues affecting business, from scale-up and innovation to procurement and skills, were hosted by Labour MPs and members of the House of Lords.

The political interest and effort placed into information gathering was remarkable. From a professional communications perspective, listening is an underused skill that was put to good use and the goodwill it generated was immediately apparent.

While the success of the event can only really be judged by what Labour does with this knowledge capture, it’s a good start from a party which says it’s taking nothing for granted in the run up to the General Election.

Great to see:

A reminder from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) at the Business Attendees Briefing for public affairs professionals to sign up to its Lobbying for Good Lobbying campaign.

Favourite quote:

“Rishi clearly decided he couldn’t stop the boats, so he’d stop the trains instead.”