The Guardian's editorial criticises a 12-week government consultation on corporate reporting, arguing it prioritises shareholder interests over those of workers and wider society despite Andy Burnham's stated ambition to move beyond neoliberalism. The consultation was launched as part of the Starmer government's drive to cut "red tape" for businesses, but the piece argues that in trying to simplify lengthy annual reports, ministers risk stripping out safeguards that hold corporate power to account, entrenching rather than ending the neoliberal model the government claims to oppose.

The article highlights three specific proposals it finds troubling: scrapping disclosure of the ratio between CEO and worker pay, a benchmark it says exposes inequality (British CEOs already earn 95% more on average than European counterparts); removing annual shareholder votes on director pay, a Theresa May-era measure that the corporate lobby group GC100 has pushed to abolish; and allowing fully virtual AGMs, which the piece says reduce shareholder scrutiny, noting that over half of BP shareholders opposed such a shift earlier this year. The editorial calls instead for a reporting regime that includes worker board representation and greater pay transparency, citing legal scholar Katharina Pistor's view that corporate law itself entrenches inequality.