Chuka Umunna's call for politicians to end 'squabbling' over business issues may have been swiftly derided by the Tories as "rather odd", but it has received a warmer response from UKIP.
Labour's shadow business secretary said on Tuesday that "there doesn’t have to be a row about everything” as "some things are too important”.
“It’s about time that Westminster changed the way it does things. We need consensus on big decisions that are made over decades, across different governments and it just hasn’t happened.”
Speaking to the Huffington Post UK, UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom called on Umunna to help businesses by joining UKIP in "opposing the terrifying wave of [EU] regulation".
"If there was one bipartisan act that Chuka could trumpet it would be to join us in opposing the terrifying wave of regulation and compliance ruminating from our friends in the European institutions," UKIP's business spokesman said.
"It is they that make opening, running and expanding small business so hard. Get out of that and the shackles would come off our entrepreneurs and we would see such a flowering of business as to think we were a greenhouse of growth. Some come on Chuka, join us."
A spokesperson for Chuka Umunna was unavailable for comment on Bloom's invitation.
On Tuesday, Tory MP Henry Smith told the Huffington Post UK: “It’s rather an odd announcement from Chuka."
"He has just spent three years clamouring for higher taxes, taking cash from trade union bosses, and pushing their anti-business policies in Parliament.