Analysis: Boris Johnson thinks he doesn’t need business. It’s a huge gamble

The prime minister wants to overhaul the UK economy as it Business could help Johnson deliver his economic agenda. But analysts and industry leaders worry that Johnson and his finance minister, Rishi Sunak, are more interested in using taxpayers’ money to Barker says “this government seems to get exasperated with business” as it wants business to adapt to this new model as quickly as possible. “If companies are experiencing labor shortages, the government position is often that it’s their fault as they should be paying more or should have been better prepared — ignoring the fact it’s a process.”Bale thinks the government’s short-term thinking could backfire. “There is a danger that the government focusses too much on its new electoral coalition and loses small business owners badly affected by Brexit’s downsides. And if the impact on business starts to measurably affect the people who work for those companies, at some point it might come back to haunt Johnson.”A lot has happened in the UK since the 2016 Brexit vote. However, the Conservative Party’s pivot towards ideas that would have been unthinkable in the 1980s has been one of the least predictable. For all the talk of recovery, Johnson is clearly banking on the economy being fundamentally changed: fairer, greener, more productive. And the gamble he is taking is placing himself and his government at the center of that recovery. It’s a big bet to make in a country whose politics has been so volatile at a time the world’s been turned on its head. But Johnson is nothing if not single-minded and ambitious.