We'll be updating this article with our take following each party conference, so bookmark this page for the CBI view.
Each autumn, the CBI is at the heart of the party conference season - hosting the CBI Business Reception, engaging ministers and spokespeople, and representing our members' insights and calls in the media. Above all, we're on the ground tracking the political debate that will shape policy in the months ahead.
Follow this page for our presence across all five conferences and our read on what they meant for business.
You can also register for our exclusive Spotlight webinar on party conferences and what they mean for business. We'll share our insider insights and reflections from our time on the ground, and what they mean for CBI members ahead of the Autumn Budget.
What was announced and what does it mean for business?
Reform UK Party Conference
Birmingham, 3–5 September 2026
Reform UK's conference was themed around the party taking 'the next step'. The CBI attended the party's first-ever Business Day, engaging with senior figures and feeding in the cross-economy business perspective on their emerging policy proposals.
Reform UK arrived at conference seeking to demonstrate that it is moving from insurgent movement to credible government-in-waiting, with its first 100 days and economic plans front and centre including announcements on income tax thresholds, university funding, and household energy bills. However, another financial controversy dominated their agenda, exposing the tension between its ambitions to project readiness to govern - and its perception as a 'bucaneering' 'start-up' protest movement. Nevertheless, its first Business Day provided useful insight into a developing economic offer, with proposals spanning business rates, planning, energy costs, skills and taxation, alongside a clear effort from the party's Treasury spokesperson to build credibility with business and financial markets.
The CBI was an active presence throughout Business Day, bringing members’ expertise and practical scrutiny to discussions with senior Reform figures and helping to test the detail behind their emerging policy offer in roundtables with CBI members.
Our engagement gives us an important window into where Reform UK could create opportunities and risks for business, as well as where significant questions remain about its readiness to govern.
Liberal Democrat Party Conference
Brighton, 19-22 September 2026
The Liberal Democrats put growth and business firmly at the centre of their conference, with Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper launching a new Plan to Get Britain Growing Again. Proposals ranged from a government ‘one-stop shop’ for business and simpler regulation and tax administration, to lower energy costs, support for scaling firms and a new Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU – reflecting significant areas of alignment with CBI priorities.
CBI Chief Executive Rain Newton-Smith joined Daisy Cooper In Discussion as part of Business Day, putting members’ priorities directly to her as the party continues to develop their economic offer. This builds on a roundtable held with CBI members and Liberal Democrat Investment and Trade Spokesperson Joshua Reynolds MP earlier this year on their Clearing the Way programme. The conference showed a party making an increasingly explicit pitch to be pro-enterprise and fiscally credible – and we’ll explore what that means for business in our forthcoming webinar.
Labour Party Conference
Liverpool, 27–30 September 2026
Labour used its first conference under Prime Minister Andy Burnham to set out a more confident economic agenda, combining a stronger role for the state with a more positive message towards business. The Prime Minister and Chancellor emphasised wealth creation, investment and profit, alongside commitments on devolution, skills and reindustrialisation.
The Chancellor acknowledged the cost pressures facing firms and offered a “deal” with business: government would maintain fiscal discipline, tackle barriers and reduce regulation where possible, while businesses invest and hire with greater confidence.
CBI Chief Executive Rain Newton-Smith interviewed the Chancellor at Labour’s Business Leaders’ Summit, putting members’ questions directly to him on growth, investment, hiring and the Budget. He later attended our conference reception with HSBC and National Grid, praising the CBI’s authority and contribution to government thinking.
Rain also spoke to the Prime Minister about how the CBI can support the government’s AI ambitions through the UK’s G20 Presidency and the B20. Across conference, we engaged ministers, advisers and businesses on priorities including energy costs, skills, devolution, AI and investment.
The conference showed a government seeking to combine greater intervention with stronger private investment. The key question is how this translates into delivery and the conditions firms need to invest, hire and grow – which we’ll explore in our forthcoming webinar.
Green Party Conference
Brighton, 2–4 October 2026
The Green Party arrived in Brighton after a remarkable year of membership and electoral growth, but faced a new question: how can they maintain their momentum as Andy Burnham seeks to win back progressive voters?
Zack Polanski continued his effort to broaden the party beyond its environmental roots, focusing on affordability, inequality and public ownership. But the conference also exposed the growing pains accompanying that expansion: contentious grassroots decisions highlighted internal divisions, tested the leadership’s control over the party’s direction, and raised questions about how easily the Greens can translate protest and influence into a serious political force competing for government.
The CBI was on the ground throughout, engaging businesses, party representatives and stakeholders and testing what the Greens’ evolving agenda could mean for firms. We attended discussions spanning economic resilience, climate adaptation and investment, while hearing directly from the leadership and the party’s increasingly influential policy ecosystem.
Conservative Party Conference
Birmingham, 4–7 October 2026
The Conservatives arrived in Birmingham markedly more confident and united than in recent years, with Kemi Badenoch consolidating her authority and sharpening the party’s economic identity around smaller government, lower tax and spending, and a distinction from Labour’s more interventionist model.
Shadow Chancellor, Andrew Griffith, used the conference to promise regulatory reform, tax simplification and faster infrastructure delivery, while principles set out in the Conservative Party's publication, The Right Way, offered a clearer window into the leadership’s underlying philosophy. But important questions remain about how the party reconciles harder positions on the UK-EU relationship, the energy transition and regulation with the stability, competitiveness and investment certainty businesses tell us they need.
The CBI had a major presence throughout, putting those priorities directly to the party as its offer develops. CBI Chief Policy and Campaigns Officer, John Foster, attended Business Day and spoke to Sky News, while we contributed to panels and roundtables on energy costs, skills, youth unemployment and pensions alongside Shadow Ministers and industry.
Our Business Reception, held with HSBC and National Grid, brought together around 200 members with the Shadow Chancellor and the Shadow Business Secretary. Our response to the Shadow Chancellor’s speech welcomed the focus on competitiveness and challenged the party to turn its diagnosis into a credible plan for investment and growth. The access and conversations across the conference gave us another important opportunity to ensure CBI members’ evidence is shaping Conservative thinking as the party develops its programme for government.
The Chancellor addresses business at the Labour Party Conference
— The Rt Hon John Healey MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, addressed business leaders at the CBI's business reception, signaling a clear intent to work alongside the CBI to create change. “This is because of you [CBI members] and the businesses you run, throwing your weight behind the CBI for the collective voice of business into government and into the public debate.”