Labour 'to be aggressively pro-business'

Labour is set to undergo a "serious redesign" as part of a drive to replace the Conservatives as "the natural party of business", John Hutton has said.

The business, enterprise and regulatory reform secretary pledged to be "aggressively pro-business" in his new brief.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform replaced the Department of Trade and Industry as part of a Whitehall shake-up following the appointment of Gordon Brown as prime minister.

Hutton told the FT that David Cameron's "harebrained" policies presented "a major opportunity for Labour".

Pointing in particular to the Tories' carbohydrates trading scheme, Hutton argued that Cameron had made "some major mistakes in their rebranding exercise in downplaying the importance of business".

And he insisted the new government structures - including the creation of a Business Council - were more than "rebranding".

"It's a serious attempt to redesign across government how we work with business," he said.

He added: "In the whole debate about more employment regulation, you have to be mindful of the costs to British business," he said. "You've got to be very careful and always take into account the impact and burden on business."

Referring to Brown's reshuffle, Hutton commended the "inspired appointment" of former CBI chief Sir Digby Jones as trade and investment minister.

The news comes ahead of a Commons Treasury committee meeting with private equity executives over tax rates.

The minister refused to comment on the Treasury review, although he acknowledged that the public had "a legitimate interest in all of this, particularly around the tax issues".