Rachel Reeves wants to pose as pro-growth but she's made one huge mistake

Rachel Reeves’s attempt to cast herself as Britain’s foremost champion of growth would be more convincing if the country’s businesses were not about to be hammered by tax.

She promised unswerving support for growth but there are fears the coming "jobs tax" will cost up to 130,000 jobs, devastating families and robbing communities of the prosperity.

If she really wanted to give employers cause to look to the future with confidence she could have pledged not to introduce further taxes on businesses. But anyone hoping for such decisive action came away disappointed.

Investors around the world would have sat up straight if she had heralded a cut to corportation tax but there is no hint that is on the agenda.

Britain has a corporation tax rate of 25% while the Republic of Ireland’s is just 12.5%.

The UK’s rate was 19% from 2017-22. Is it crazy to imagine that the hike in the rate has contributed to the UK’s failure to grow?

Ms Reeves attacked the Conservatives’ “failed” Brexit deal but where is her vision for how to make the most of new trading freedoms to strengthen links with emerging economic powerhouses?

Swathes of her much-hyped speech could have been delivered by a Conservative Chancellor. She said she wanted Britain to be the “best place in the world to be an entrepreneur” and blasted the low productivity and red tape which holds the UK back.

She seems spoiling for a fight with environmentalists, saying that developers will be able to stop worrying about bats and newts and pledging her support to adding a new runway to Heathrow. She signalled the Government will make tough decisions on welfare, and she name-checked communities across the UK that are being held back for a lack of investment.

Ms Reeves is the latest minister to champion better connections between Oxford and Cambridge and people across the North will hope that wretched local transport systems are improved. But none of this can happen overnight – and that looming hike in National Insurance contributions this April is the immediate challenge for employers.

And the Government’s own analysis found plans for expanded workers’ rights could cost businesses £5billion to implement. Rather than imply attack Nimbys, Ms Reeves should look at how her own Government's policies are holding back growth.

But there is an even bigger challenge that has to be grasped if the UK to thrive amid intense international competition - and it is one that left the Tories stumped, too.

The United States has no shortage of social crises or infrastructure problems but it repeatedly produces world-changing technological innovations and reaps the rewards.

Britain has a wealth of boffins but where is the UK’s answer to Facebook, Telsa, Microsoft, Amazon or SpaceX? People with brilliant ideas need to be able to access the cash to take these further.

During the early days of the computer revolution, Britain produced the BBC Micro and the ZX Spectrum - creations which inspired a generation of fantastic programmers - but we did not see the birth of corporations with the vision and impact of Intel or Apple. We have the know-how but something stops potential-rich companies reaching the next level.

The construction industry will earnestly hope Ms Reeves succeeds in ushering in a golden age of development – just as they hoped her Tory predecessors would deliver on similar pledges to champion growth.

If she truly wants to see businesses flourish she should strive to lift the tax burden. The Chancellor is right to see entrepreneurs as superheroes, but taxation is the Kryptonite which threatens to kill their creativity.