Sharp knives will be wielded by 80 corporate executives in Birmingham’s Hyatt Regency Symphony Ballroom as they gather this lunchtime at the annual conference of Britain’s Conservatives.

The cutlery is intended to dissect the fine cuisine rather than the policies of guest of honour George Osborne, the party’s finance spokesman. But there is an unmistakable air of ambivalence hanging over relations between the opposition party and business this week as both sides throng the halls and bars of England’s second city.