Get an MP to work in your bike shop (it could be George Osborne)

Pro-remain ex-Chancellor George Osborne is backing the "Get Britain Trading" campaign from the Forum of Private Business. The campaign is being launched to coincide with tomorrow’s Article 50 trigger, and the Forum’s Business Partner Scheme aims to get small businesses to host ministers, local MPs, and civil servants to work in their businesses for a few hours, and gain a deeper understanding of the issues that they face on a day to day basis.

The other elements of the ‘Get Britain Trading’ campaign are:

• Helping to improve the performance and productivity of members
• Re-launching the ‘Hall of Shame’ to highlight bad behaviour of UK businesses, which damage the trust and reputation of UK PLC.
• Ethical and compliant behaviour from businesses, for which the Forum has developed an Ethical Workbook and a Compliance Handbook, both of which are being circulated to members in the coming months.
• Provision of clear and direct feedback from members to Government with a view to ensuring all initiatives from Government are kept simple and workable.
• Lobbying for a smooth Brexit transition and for a favourable post Brexit business environment.

The Forum’s Brexit plan asks for:

• Clear communication of Brexit negotiations
• Creating the right business environment
• Rewarding successful entrepreneurs
• Simplification of the tax system
• Removal of unnecessary red tape
• A focus on education addressing skills gaps
• Promotion of good business practices, such as healthcare
• Regional rebalancing of the UK economy

Six-jobs Osborne said: "I welcome the campaign being launched by the Forum of Private Business to get Britain trading more. Small businesses and entrepreneurs play an important role in our economy and we all need to understand their needs and aspirations by working together."

Forum of Private Business CEO Ian Cass said:

"It is clear that the government, ministers and MPs do not fully understand how small businesses work, their challenges and opportunities. There are also a wide variety of small business, many with different challenges and issues. As these businesses make up the largest part of the UK economy we would like to try and help government to get closer to them and understand the needs of the sector as well as the impact of their actions on the businesses.

"We are therefore encouraging [businesses] to open their doors to ministers and MPs to go in and spend some time working and more fully understanding this highly entrepreneurial sector who we will be relying on to ‘Get Britain Trading.’"