Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is set to make her first major speech of the election campaign this morning. There's more than 120 business leaders back Labour's economic plan. Let's talk about it in more detail. Jonathan Reynolds is with us now. Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade is his formal title. It's good to see you, Mr. Reynolds. Thanks for taking the time. You've got the backing of 121 business leaders in the Times this morning. I see a letter there. What's more important? Business leaders or unions and workers to you?

Okay, well, you need both. You need both for a strong economy. We need better business investment in the UK. That's been very poor, the lowest of any major economy for some years. Now we need better productivity, better growth, and we need more secure work and jobs. And that is exactly what labour's, what we call our pro-worker, pro-business agenda is all about. The fact that you've got so many significant business figures, feeling they can come out and say labour's changed, only labour's got a plan for the economy along alongside the fact that we are unashamedly going to end exploitative zero-hours contracts or practices like fire and rehire, I think shows that we have built a coalition, a set of people who want better for the UK, who want better for the British economy, and we need both of those components together. But actually, when I go to a business, a factory or whatever, often what I'm told by the Trade Union reps is the same as what I'm told by the management. It starts by saying, please some stability, no more Liz Trusses, please a good industrial policy, please tackle things like the apprenticeship levy and the relationship to the European Union and ambition on net zero that is required.

That's Labour's plan, and I'm looking forward to Rachel setting out the agenda in full later today.

Okay, she's promised to lower taxes for working people while also not making public spending cuts. Does she have a magic money tree in her back garden?

It's not a magic money tree, but it is, I think, the question that should be at the heart of this general election. If you think most people in the UK, they know they're paying high taxes, they're the highest by historical standards. They know public services aren't very good. I mean, record NHS waiting lists, schools not opening for the school year because of falling concrete. And the reason for that is low economic growth. So that's why a speech today from Rachel, setting out the comprehensive set of measures This is the labor plan for growth, which is about stability, yes, but also about industrial strategy, fixing the apprenticeship, a bit more flexibility for businesses there, improving the relationship to the European Union, our green prosperity plan, getting industrial energy prices down. These These are all necessary. These are practical, real deliverable things. But they do also have, as part of them, I'll say again, a package to make work paid, to give people more security in the workplace, to drive up wages. That is going to be the answer. If we continue as we've done for the last 14 years, it's going to be cuts and misery and bad news.

But let's have some optimism and excitement for the future. I think we can do better than how we've done.

Labor is going to be able to lower taxes and improve public spending. You need to give me more information about how you're going to do that.

Okay, well, let's go back to what we've seen for the last 14 years. We've seen very little business investment, very poor productivity, very poor by historical standards for the UK, economic growth. Really, the economy has grown through immigration rather than more productive capacity per head. And so that is why people are looking at why the taxes are high, but they're not getting the public services that they want. That is what we've got to break out of. Now, we should say to ourselves, do we really believe things can't get better than how they have been for the last few years? Or do we look to ourselves and say, when we look to certain sectors of the British economy, we do Excel. Look at the talent we've got, look at the innovation, look at our higher education base and our research funding. We can do better, but it's not working on the current path.

What's a political point? What's the time scale are we talking about?

I believe by the first term of a labor government, we can see growth return to the standards we would expect. Actually, I think we can do even better than that because we've got a set of pragmatic practical measures. Look, I'd say to people, don't just take my word for it as someone running for re-election in a general election or who wants to be this country's business and Trade Secretary. Look at the businesses who've endorsed that plan today. Serious people, household names.

None of them in the top 100 footsy, though, are they?

Look at those names. There's businesses like Iceland and institutions like Wikipedia and Nissan and Wagamama and JD Sports, things people will be familiar with. It is an extraordinary, I think, turnaround, a recognition of how labor has changed. Okay. When the companies are Don't you be increasing taxes for higher earners? That's not part of labour's plans. We've set out a set of ways to boost spending on public services. That's a no? There's no plans to raise taxes on higher earners where we have spending changes to the government. We always say how those would be paid for. So for instance, on education, it is the taxation of private schools in order to put those teachers and mental health support into schools.

I'm glad you brought that up. Because there's a report this morning, a survey this morning, saying that 224,000 pupils, their parents are likely to take them from private schools. If you do add this 20% VAT, they'll have to be finding spaces for these kids in state schools. Also, the amount of money that you are hoping to get from these private schools will be reduced by almost 40% according to this latest survey. What would you say in response to that?

Well, I've seen some of those headlines. I'm afraid I don't think it's a credible report with findings that could hold up against scrutiny. I would direct anyone to look at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and their very authoritative piece of work on it. Of course, we do have a declining birth rate in the UK, so there would be space in the state education system if people did come across. The modeling on the money that will be raised does take into account the fact that some people, a small proportion, will go into the state sector. But I think, again, look at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. It's an independent and very authoritative report on the revenue that we will raise. It's just a pragmatic set of choices about how we will get more money for new teachers, new mental health support for people into state schools, which, of course, the vast majority of British children go to in the UK.

Are you expecting Diane Abbott to stand for the Labor Party in Hackney North and Stoke Newington?

To be honest, I have no additional information on that. The Labor Party has a process which is independent of labor politicians and people like me. I, of course, want every situation like that to be resolved as soon as possible, particularly for people who've been very significant in the history of the Labor Party trailblazers. I I would like those things resolved, but of course, it's an independent process as it should be, so I don't have any additional information or role in that, I'm afraid.

But you'd be happy to welcome her back?

I wouldn't... Any time you've got a disciplinary process, I want that to be resolved in a way which has genuinely I'm doing a contrition which solves the problem, but I don't know the set of circumstances in this case. I genuinely don't.

Okay, there's some suggestions on social media today that actually this was concluded some five months ago and nothing has been done to welcome her back into the party. She did suffer some penalty, but has now served that. That's not something that you can or want to comment on.

Well, I can't, but I can say that I've been on the media on many occasions, and you at times have been putting quite rightly here the question is to me about conduct of colleagues where that has fallen short and you've obviously wanted to know, how will labor react to this? Will we take these things seriously? When a colleague is in a position as they're in, it is, of course, regrettable. But if it comes from something they've said or done, we're all accountable for those actions. What we say and do as politicians. Of course, I want a robust process in place to deal with that. I can say labor does have that to me.

Yeah, I mean, let me just press you once more on that because the suggestion is that the investigation into her suspension finished five months ago. A source telling a colleague of mine at the BBC that she was given a formal warning in December of 2023, required to do an online anti-Semitism course, which she did in February, and yet she still doesn't know whether she can stand as a Labor candidate at the next election. She's quoted as saying she's angry, depressed, and worn out.

I don't have the information to give you more clarity on that. I think it's the fact that I, and people like me are independent of that process. I do want these things resolved as soon as possible, and I want there to be the full set of Labor candidates in every constituency in the country which we're close to doing, even though the election was a surprise last week. I hope these things can genuinely be resolved as soon as possible.

What do you say to those that refer to Kier Starmer as so sleepy?

I think it's laughable, and I would look at the Labor start to the general election campaign, compare that to the conservative parties, and feel real confidence not just in the Labor message, Labor policies, but also in Kier Starmer, who I think would make a tremendous Prime Minister if we get the chance to do that.

Let's wait and see. Not long to wait now. Quicker than you thought. It's good to see you. Come see us in the studio sometime. Thank you.