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Hello and welcome to political thinking, a conversation with rather than a newsy

interrogation of someone who shapes our political thinking about what has shaped theirs.

The Chancellor was clear in her budget business.

We're going to pay the bill.

They were going to pick up the tab for rebuilding the NHS and stopping our public services

facing austerity again.

Now those who run businesses complain that they're now faced not just with higher taxes, but also with the burden of a higher

national living wage and paying for improved workers' rights as well.

My guest this week is the chair of the

CBI, the Confederation of British Industry, an organization that for decades

was the unrivaled voice of big business, but in recent years it's been hit by what he described as a near-death experience,

a crisis in which members quit the CBI after a scandal.

Rupert Holmes is not just a successful businessman in his own right,

but the son of a leading politician and diplomat and the grandson of this country's greatest ever leader,

Winston Churchill. Rupert Soames, welcome to political thinking.

Hello. With your business hat on, your CBBI hat on what was it like watching the Chancellor deliver that

budget and realize quite what a big blow it was going to be to business.

Well, first of all, just to put it in context, I think that nobody in the business community

wants to see this government be anything less than successful, particularly in its ambition to drive

growth into the UK economy.

So nobody wishes it ill.

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