Tim Yeo has vowed to launch a cross-Whitehall campaign to ensure Britain becomes "a better place to do business".

The shadow trade and industry secretary slammed the government for damaging the UK's ability to compete in an increasingly globalised economy.

He told party members gathered in Blackpool that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had "squandered" the benefits of a strong economy inherited from John Major's administration.

Yeo said he was prepared to take on his shadow Cabinet colleagues in a bid to ensure Britain regains its international competitiveness.

"When I'm secretary of state for trade and industry, I'll cut the bureaucracy in the DTI itself," he pledged.

"I'll bang on the desks of my Cabinet colleagues to make sure they know what they're doing to business.

"Under the Conservatives everyone in Whitehall will know that Britain must be made a better place to do business."

Accusing Labour of levying £47 billion in new business taxes, Yeo said jobs were being created in "huge" numbers in the public sector at a time when they were vanishing where they mattered.

"Unlike Labour, we'll make Britain a better place to do business," he said.

"We'll cut regulation... We'll halt the rise in business taxes, we'll rebuild infrastructure and we'll give our workers the skills they need."

The call came after CBI director general Digby Jones said the Conservative Party must offer policies to make Britain more competitive.

Jones told the party's Blackpool conference that all political parties should step up pro-business polices in the run up to the next general election.

"I want to see all political parties engaging with business, raising their game and going for it with a true pro-enterprise agenda," he said on Wednesday.

"That is good for business, for the economy and especially for all those people whose livelihood's depend on our success."

He challenged the Conservatives to show they could do better and expressed his frustration with the government over tax, regulation and transport.

Jones also warned the party not to assume that business was a natural Conservative territory.

"There was a time in this country when every businessman was assumed to be a card carrying member of the Conservative Party, but that caricature is out of date," he said.

He warned politicians would have to accept globalisation as the central driving force for the economy.

"The party that shows it has truly understood the realities of a brutally competitive globalised economy will be welcomed by a business community that is currently more politically sceptical than it has been for a long time," Jones said.

His criticism of Labour was tempered with the acknowledgement that there had been successes since 1997.

"But it is also a fact that this is the most economically successful Labour administration in history," he added.

"And macro-economic stability is the greatest prize business can win from any government."