A few hundred British business leaders gathered in a London conference hall on Monday morning to hear Gordon Brown, the chancellor, and Michael Howard, leader of the opposition, make their pitches to business. It was the only set-piece political confrontation on business issues of the election campaign before voting on May 5, and the result was a draw - polite applause for both speeches, five easy questions for each man and no heckling.

British business has never been more divided in its political loyalties. The lack of a clear victory for Mr Howard spoke volumes for the policy changes that Labour has made and its progress in wooing business since the mid 1990s. Previously, the Conservatives could rely on industry leaders, from the smallest entrepreneur to the grandest corporate executive, to blanch at the prospect of an election win for Labour, whose previous periods in power were associated with economic crisis. Now the parties trade blows on more or less equal terms.