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Industry leaders have questioned the suggestion that the working week could be cut to four days within a decade of a Jeremy Corbyn government being elected.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell announced today he believed a 32 hour working week could be achieved with no cut to wages.

Announcing that “we should work to live, not live to work” he said Britons worked some of the longest hours in Europe – and something needed to change.

Carolyn Fairbairn , director general of the Confederation of British Industries, said Labour needed to root its polices in reality, not political ideology.

She said though the business body shared the aim of creating a fairer economy, she believed that “too many of Labour’s policies would make this harder to achieve, harming the very people they are trying to help”.

She said although workers might like the idea of a shorter week, without productivity gains it would push too many businesses into loss.

The shadow chancellor told the party conference in Brighton that Labour governments and trade unions were responsible for bringing the average working week down from 65 hours in the 1860s to 43 hours by the 1970s.

But he said progress had stalled.