Who is the best PM candidate for small business?

There are eight MPs who have declared they will contend to become the next Prime Minister of our enterprising nation. Admittedly more may follow but from the eight who have shown their hand, I’ve looked at their business record, declared any previous dealings with Enterprise Nation, and - despite the fact we can’t vote for or against them - offered a suggestion of the candidates who could be a particularly good choice for small business.

1. Matt Hancock –currently my odds-on favourite. We first got to know Matt Hancock when he was Minister at the business department. He is one of the most open Ministers I’ve ever met in terms of listening to small businesses and reacting to the market. At Cabinet Office, he was the Minister who announced he wanted ￡1 in every ￡3 of government money being spent with small business and in following roles in Culture and Health he has championed entrepreneurship, and the public sector embracing technology and SME solutions. He comes from a business family and, in all my dealings with him, I feel he understands small business and will back us to the hilt. I’d like to see Matt come out with a small business manifesto but I already like the fact he’s focused on delivering Brexit and then, critically, building a positive future for the country.
2. Jeremy Hunt – the only contender who has  run a business. In Sunday Times the headline ran ‘Jeremy Hunt launches his campaign to succeed Theresa May today with a pledge to slash business taxes to the lowest in Europe to attract foreign firms to Brexit Britain, arguing that his background as an entrepreneur makes him the best qualified candidate to negotiate a new deal with Brussels.’ This may be true but I have to say, in all our dealings with government on small business policy and representation, Hunt has been pretty absent.
3. Dominic Raab –  we had contact with Dominic back in 2014 when he expressed interest in the work we were doing to match large corporates with small business to enable trade between the two. We haven’t heard much from him since but, to his credit, he has delivered speeches on the future of small business, post Brexit, including one in January 2019 to the Centre for Policy Studies. 
4. Boris Johnson – infamously uttered the phrase ‘F**k business’ which seemed to be at odds with his work as London Mayor when his Deputy for Business, Kit Malthouse, was pro-active in coming up with policies and plans to encourage and support enterprise in the capital. We get the feeling Boris is a man of big business, as opposed to small firms.  
5. Rory Stewart – has a section of his website dedicated to visiting small businesses in his constituency. Not much else to report. 
6. Esther McVey – her Dad ran his own business but there’s not much to go on in being able to comment on the views of this contender on the topic of small business. Sadly, the same goes for contender 7 (Michael Gove) and 8 (Andrea Leadsom) 

What should be noted is that contenders 3, 4, 6 and 8 have said they will consider a No Deal Brexit. This is something small businesses have rallied against for some time. 

It's a shame that Liz Truss has decided against running as she has been actively engaging with small businesses around the upcoming Spending Review and is a champion for simple taxes, low regulation, and free enterprise.

With over 5 million people running a small business and thousands more starting out, we feel our community is a major voting constituent. Let’s see if each of the candidates lay out more of their position and policies on small business and enterprise over the coming weeks – most have a lot of catching up to do! 

PS If you are a small business with experience of any of the candidates, I’d love to hear from you in the comments ie if you feel there are enterprise policies or views they have championed and that I have missed.