Labour forced to cancel Chancellor's £5,000-a-head conference
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, was expected to address executives and lobbyists at the conference in central London in three weeks.
It was supposed to be the first in a series of special events offering a 'unique opportunity' for businesses to 'engage with Labour's plan to kick-start economic growth '.
But it has now been postponed after several firms decided to skip it, according to the Financial Times, with leaders put off partly by the cost.
It comes after Labour cancelled another audience with the Chancellor in March, two weeks before it was set to take place, with tickets said to cost £1,500.
On Wednesday, Ms Reeves was grilled on whether Labour was treating companies like a 'cash point', with firms reportedly becoming 'jaded' about 'constant requests' for money.
It points to an increasingly strained relationship with the sector in the wake of the Chancellor's tax raid on businesses last year.
Taking questions after a speech in Greater Manchester, Ms Reeves was told that companies were getting 'increasingly jaded by constant requests for cash from the party in the name of business engagement'.
Asked if Labour was treating businesses like a 'cash point', she said: 'I think that it's well known that I regularly meet British businesses in my capacity as Chancellor, also as a local MP, and when I'm on visits right around the country, and I am doing right now at this great bus company in Rochdale.
'So I don't think that it's a valid criticism of me as Chancellor, that I don't spend enough time with business.'
The decision to pull the June event was seized upon by the Tories, who joked that charging firms for access while hiking their taxes did not amount to a 'great sales pitch'.
The Financial Times said that several lobbyists had decided not to attend in part because of the cost. In March, Labour reportedly raised the price per head from £3,000 to £5,000.
One senior figure at a FTSE 100 firm told the newspaper that 'none of our team is going', while another lobbyist said they had 'no clients planning to attend' and a third said businesses were 'getting stricter about what they spend on'.
A Labour Party spokesman said: 'The Labour Party regularly engages with a wide range of stakeholders and events are frequently scheduled throughout the year, which receive a high level of interest.'
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