Hague promises to overhaul IR35 and ecommerce acts

Speaking at an event held by the Conservative Business Liason Unit (CBLU), the leader of the opposition criticised the current government for its heavy-handed and badly drafted legislation, claiming a Tory government would cut red tape and encourage self-regulation within the IT industry.

He described IR35 as a 'stealth tax', claiming it has already caused a brain drain of talented workers.

Hague was joined at the event by the shadow chancellor, Michael Portillo, and the recently appointed shadow minister for trade and industry, David Heathcoat-Amory.

Hague did not outline any specific policies, but claimed he would instigate a wide-ranging overhaul of the key high-tech issues, including the workings of Oftel, BT's roll-out of ADSL, and the way universities function.

Hague hinted that the creation of a super-regulator (commonly referred to as Ofcom) was on the agenda.

Heathcoat-Amory used last night's function to unveil research sponsored by Nettec and Zygon, which found that over 61 per cent of UK business leaders believe the current UK regulatory environment has failed to promote access to the telecommunications infrastructure.

Over half of the companies polled claimed government has never consulted them about ebusiness issues.

The research also found that nearly one fifth of business leaders believe the UK's telecoms infrastructure is unable to support the growth of new media applications, such as video-on-demand.

Portillo took the opportunity to stress his party's belief that joining the single European currency would remove flexibility from the UK economy, and would damage its prospects of becoming a world leader in ecommerce.

The CBLU was set up in 1998 to foster the party's links with the business community.