Cameron rapped by BHS boss
David Cameron raises hackles on business leaders
Wednesday, 10, May 2006 12:00
David Cameron's promise to stand up to big business slightly backfired last night when one of Britain's biggest retail chiefs accused him of being out of date.
The Conservative leader branded the decision by department store BHS to sell sexy underwear for children as "harmful and creepy".
"It may be good for business, but it’s not good for families and it’s not good for society, and we should say so," he told a meeting of business leaders yesterday.
But head of BHS Philip Green told BBC News his criticism was "bizarre", saying the offending items had been withdrawn three and a half years ago – and within a day of complaints first being lodged.
"Maybe he should catch up on his reading. We would never sell items that were inappropriate for the market," he said.
Mr Cameron was speaking more broadly about the issue of corporate social responsibility, where he insisted that for too long, the Tories had been only seen as out for big business and shareholders.
"Companies provide jobs, wealth and opportunity, constantly improving the goods and services that make people’s lives easier and happier. Business also generates much of the tax revenue that pays for public services," the Witney MP said.
But he added: "I’ve never believed that we can leave everything to market forces. I’m not prepared to turn a blind eye if the system sometimes leaves casualties in its wake. Unless shortcomings are addressed, the entire system risks falling into disrepute."
For example, if big supermarkets were using their "financial muscle" to drive out smaller retailers, the Tories must complain, Mr Cameron said – while if employers were making it harder for people to combine work and family life, "we should speak out".
Yesterday, the Competition Commission announced an inquiry into whether supermarkets were engaging in uncompetitive practices, and the Tories insisted they would back the investigation fully.
"The inquiry must be comprehensive, looking not just at planning but also at issues such as predatory pricing and the advance of the supermarkets into the convenience store market," said shadow business minister Mark Prisk.
Under draft proposals outlined by Mr Cameron, companies which publicly sign up to a commitment to "responsible business practices" would be subject to a lighter regulatory touch – an approach he said was a balance between a nanny state and indifference.
"Compulsion should be a last resort, not a first impulse. But nor am I attracted to a value-neutral approach in which those in government and politics are loftily indifferent to ethically suspect business practice, regarding it as an essentially private matter," he said.
"As well as being morally wrong, it is also foolish in practical terms. For if we choose to remain silent in the face of bad behaviour then we leave the field clear to those whose agenda is profoundly anti-capitalist."