Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pulled out of appearing at the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) today as he prepares to place the country in a second national lockdown.
Mr Johnson's decision not to attend the event comes just a day after the CBI's director-general Dame Carolyn Fairbairn said the new four week lockdown will be "a real body blow " for businesses.
A second lockdown covering the whole of England is set to come into force on Thursday, November 5. The lockdown will last four weeks and lead to the closure of pub, restaurants, entertainment venues, and non-essential shops.
She added that the appearance at the conference was a chance for the Prime Minister "to make it absolutely clear that he backs business".
But the organisation's president, Lord Bilimoria, revealed this morning that the Prime Minister had pulled out of the annual event and was being replaced by Business Secretary Alok Sharma.
Today will be only the second time that a Prime Minister has not spoken at the event.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Lord Bilimoria said: “It is absolutely normal, in the history of the CBI, for the Prime Minister of the day to address the annual conference.
“To my knowledge this has only not happened once in history.
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“He is not going to be addressing us this morning.
“However, we are hopeful that at some stage he will engage with us.”
Dame Carolyn has said that the Prime Minister's relationship with the business community "could be a lot better", adding that the conference was an opportunity for him to make it "absolutely clear that he backs business".
Speaking on Sky New's Sophy Ridge On Sunday, she said: “It has been a disappointment to me that there hasn’t been a closer relationship there….I think it could be a lot better, I really do.”
Commenting on lockdown Ms Fairbairn said that mass rapid testing for business "could be a total game-changer".
She said: “We need to do everything we can to minimise the damage of this second lockdown… We need to keep as much of the economy open as we possibly can and actually because more businesses are Covid-safe now manufacturing, construction should be able to stay open.
“We do need to protect jobs and the enablers of the economy through this, the fact we’ve got the job retention scheme, furlough continuing is really, really fundamental…
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“We need to use the next four weeks to really prepare for what might come next and mass rapid testing for business could be a total game-changer, enabling more of our economy to be open and work safely and productively.”
She added: “Economic support has felt too often as though it’s ‘tail-end Charlie’, it’s business having to come and say ‘now we need this, now we need that’, instead of being part of the solution right from the beginning and we would really welcome clarification from the Government right now that, as long as these restrictions are in place, the support will be in place because businesses need to plan.
“If that isn’t there then jobs will be lost now.”
Dame Carolyn will use her final speech to the CBI conference as director-general to urge the Government, business and others to unite and produce a strategy of the scope seen during the Second World War to kick-start the economy's revival.