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Q: How can we ensure students have a more rounded education, so we develop future business leaders?
Sunak says this is really important. Last week he was talking about getting pupils to study maths until they are 18, he says.
Sunak says they are out of time. But this is not the end of the government’s engagement with business, he says.
Q: What will you do to address the gender funding gap for start-ups?
Sunak says this is a really important area. He says Alison Rose did a review on this. Since then, the number of women starting small businesses has doubled, he says. He asks what else the government should do.
The questioner suggests ring-fencing capital for women starting firms, and more networking opportunities.
Sunak says he agrees about the power of mentors.
Q: What are you doing to promote apprenticeships?
Sunak says he wants to put apprenticeships on Ucas. Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has announced this, he says. That will help people realised what is available.
Q: How will the UK regulate AI to prevent scenarios where it becomes uncontrollable?
Sunak says AI has huge potential.
An AI white paper was published a few weeks ago. It set out the regulatory approach. It proposed an adaptice, principles-based approach, he says. There will be safeguards, he says.
Q: Could the government do more with employers, or with veterans, to help veterans retrain and re-enter the jobs market?
Sunak says he wants Britain to be the best country in the world to be a veteran. He pays tribute to the role played by the armed forces in rescuing people from Sudan. And he says he has a veterans minister in cabinet.
He asks the questioner to email him with information about what he sees as the barriers for over-40s going back to work.
Sunak is now taking a questiom from a restaurant owner in Northern Ireland.
Q: What will you do to ensure we don’t have to wait for a resolution at Stormont before we can access the government help that is available? Businesses like mine could have to close.
Sunak says the Windsor framework should allow Northern Ireland to move forward.
He says non-domestic rates have been frozen.
But he wants the institutions back up and running, he says.
Rishi Sunak’s speech is being streamed on LinkedIn.
Sunak started by saying the government was holding a series of events with business today, about how they can make the UK “the most pro-enterprise country in the world”.
He said he backed business as chancellor through the furlough scheme. Now he wants to promote growth, and ensure business has “access to the right skills and talent”, he said.
But he said his priority was to listen.
Then he started taking questions.
Q: How can government ensure business has the right skills in the workplace?
Sunak said this was probably what he talked to business most about.
First, he said, government had to “keep pace with how the economy is changing”. People do not get jobs for life, he said. He cited T-levels as an example of how the government was addressing the need for people to retrain, and skills bootcamp.
Sunak asked the questioner to tell him what the government should be doing. The questioners mentioned AI.
Sunak said he agreed on the potential of AI. He said AI had been added to the category of jobs where skilled workers can get visas to work in the UK.
Good morning. The Conservative party used to be seen as the party of business, but over the past nine years, because of Brexit, Boris Johnson (who at times could not conceal his dislike for big business) and Liz Truss (who almost crashed the economy, that link has been tested to breaking point. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been wooing business assiduously.
This morning Sunak will seek to address this by launching Business Connect, which No 10 describes as “a new platform for businesses to engage with prime minister Rishi Sunak’s pro-growth, pro-enterprise government”. It is the first time we will have heard from him since he lost his deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, on Friday.
In a statement released ahead of the event, Sunak said:
Since taking office, I’ve spoken to over 1000 business people - because they are the innovators and change-makers at the heart of our economy, supporting jobs, attracting investment and driving growth.
The UK can be proud of its business credentials. Through the creation of 162 tech unicorns, smarter regulation and world-leading universities – we’ve got the right ingredients to double down on growing the economy.
Here is the agenda for the day.
8.30am: Rishi Sunak speaks at a Business Connect event on LinkedIn.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Morning: Keir Starmer does a visit in London, where he will speak to journalists.
After 3.30pm: James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, is expected to make a statement to MPs about Sudan.
Afternoon: Sunak meets Humza Yousaf, the new Scottish first minister, in London.
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