Strong endorsement of the CBI or display of corporate apathy? Impossible to tell

“I’m deeply grateful for the faith shown in us by our members,” declared Rain Newton-Smith, director general of the CBI. OK, nobody is going to quibble with a 93% majority for the overhaul plan. But, tell us, what was the turnout? What percentage of CBI members voted in the poll?

That is the point at which the “voice of business” falls silent. It is apparently a matter of deep principle that the outside world must not know how many companies and trade associations are members of the CBI. Thus it is impossible to judge whether a grand total of 371 votes cast, plus 23 active abstentions, represents a thumping endorsement or a show of general apathy.

If the CBI has, say, 500 members, then, yes, the board could probably fairly claim strong backing; you’ve never going to get a turnout of 100% even when the electorate is supposedly switched-on because it has to pay chunky annual fees. But if membership is, say, 1,500-odd then one would surely regard a 93% majority in a different light; it would equate to active support from slightly less than one in four of those eligible to vote.

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The CBI has no intention of clearing up the mystery. It has said in the past that about 150 trade bodies are members but it has never volunteered an estimate for the number of actual companies, which is the interesting bit. An additional confusion in the context of Tuesday’s poll is that at least one large FTSE 100 firm that had suspended its membership believed it was not entitled to vote when, apparently, it could have done so.

Still, the CBI can argue that votes cast is what matters. The show will go on, albeit on slimmed-down form because the resignations of several high-profile members – the likes of the NatWest, Aviva, John Lewis Partnership and, now, Tesco – have put a dent in the annual budget. In the medium-term, though, the organisation’s ability to recover its lobbying clout will probably be determined by two factors highlighted here yesterday.

First, ministers’ willingness to re-engage with the CBI. The post-poll reaction from the government was non-committal. “We will continue to engage with businesses on a case-by-case basis and business groups where appropriate,” said a spokesperson.

Second, the number of defections to the rival British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), which at the weekend created a new “business council” for large companies. The fact that BP, a big beast of the lobbying scene, has joined the new council gives the BCC a strong recruitment advert.

In the meantime, everybody has learned a lesson in how to decipher the CBI’s traditional boast about how “we represent 190,000 UK businesses, employing nearly 7 million people – that’s about a third of the private sector workforce.”

It is using the word “represent” very carefully. It’s not saying it has 190,000 direct members; instead, it is including members of trade bodies, such as the 50,000-strong National Farmers’ Union, that are part of the CBI’s confederation. Now that it is preaching the gospel of transparency, the CBI might care to make the distinction clearer in future.