Vince Cable a socialist, says No 10 adviser Beecroft - BBC News

22 May 2012 Last updated at 22:17 ET

Vince Cable is a socialist who "appears to do very little to support business", a No 10 adviser on employment law says.

Venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft hit back at the business secretary who had dismissed his proposals to make it easier to fire workers as "nonsense".

The Conservative donor told the Daily Telegraph Mr Cable's objections to his suggestions, published in a report this week, were "ideological not economic".

Many Tory MPs back the adviser's plans as a means of boosting UK businesses.

'Go nuclear threat'

Mr Beecroft, who was asked to review employment law by Downing Street, said of Mr Cable: "I think he is a socialist who found a home in the Lib Dems, so he's one of the Left.

"I think people find it very odd that he's in charge of business and yet appears to do very little to support business."

Mr Beecroft blamed the Conservatives' coalition partners, the Lib Dems, for blocking his plans, accusing leader Nick Clegg of always "threatening to go nuclear and dissolve the whole thing if he doesn't get his way with this, that and the other".

He also criticised the Treasury for failing to "drive growth".

Mr Beecroft told the Telegraph that if all of his recommendations were introduced there would be a 5% increase in growth.

He confirmed that he backs the delay of new family friendly rules, such as flexible parental leave, although that proposal did not appear in the final version of his report.

His report, which was published on Monday, proposed making it easier for firms to sack under-performing staff.

It suggested ending a mandatory 90-day consultation period when a company is considering redundancy programmes and instead called for a standard 30-day period and an emergency five-day period if a firm was in severe distress.

The report said outdated regulations were harming the economy and preventing companies from creating jobs.

Changes to employment law, it has been argued, would improve the supply of suitable staff to firms, who would be less afraid of having to make large payouts or face legal action when laying off those who were no longer needed.

'Wrong approach'

But Mr Cable had condemned the proposals as "the wrong approach", telling the BBC it was not the job of government to "scare the wits" out of people.

His study followed Prime Minister David Cameron's call for British industry to be freed from "red tape".

Labour leader Ed Miliband had said of the report: "We need an economy based on long-termism, investment and training.

"We need to get away from an economy based on a short-term, take-what-you-can, fire-at-will culture."

But Conservative MP Damian Collins argued: "It would be terrible if smaller businesses were holding back on recruiting because they're worried about whether they can sustain the income they need to keep those people on over the longer period of time."