of billions in new business the conference was held over eight venues. in birmingham, keir starmertried to reset labour's ties with business after the nationalisation plans of the corbyn era. sometimes, if i may say so, our party has come across as thinking that business is to be tolerated in some way but not to be celebrated as a good in itself, and i think that mindset has changed under my leadership. the government's asking a lot of the private sector. it wants it to do the lion's share of levelling up and decarbonising, which is a tall order for firms emerging into a post—covid, post—brexit world and facing higher taxes on profits and wages. little wonder, then, that that crucial business investment is still way down on where it was before the pandemic.