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September 20, 2013

Entrepreneurs need their own union, says Silva

Rohan SilvaOne of David Cameron's former leading advisers has called for entrepreneurs to establish their own trade union to represent their interests.

Rohan Silva, the former senior policy adviser to Number 10 who championed technology and entrepreneurship, said the needs of small and medium-sized businesses are currently under-represented in Westminster.

Speaking at an event hosted by 3beards, a start-up that organises events for London's tech community, Silva said: "Politicians do care about start-ups, but they're dispersed everywhere, how do you find them? They don't have lobbying people, they don't have public affairs people, they're not in and out of Whitehall the whole time.

"Small businesses are generally massively failed by the representative groups that are supposed to stand for them. There should be a trade union for entrepreneurs."

Silva also described the dominance of government contracts by a few large firms as "genuinely immoral". He said one of his biggest goals whilst working for Cameron was to open up the system to newer bidders. Silva left Number 10 earlier this year to start his own business.

Richard Branson was asked to comment on Silva's suggestion by Management Today this week. He said: "I don't really think entrepreneurs need a trade union. I think entrepreneurs are individuals that can speak out on issues that they feel strongly about and there are organisations like the IoD that can represent business fine."

Image: Policy Exchange on Flickr

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