David Cameron appoints new business gurus

David Cameron has appointed a circle of the country’s biggest-hitting industry bosses as his new business gurus.

Among the new committee of advisors are Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica and Andy Street, John Lewis managing director.

Also in the group are Andrew Witty, chief executive of the pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline, and Paul Walsh, chief executive of Diageo.

Both Mr Witty and Mr Walsh were also advisors to Gordon Brown during his tenure in Downing Street.

The announcement about the launch of the new committee was likely to be made officially on Friday.

The first meeting will take place in early November, although the timings are subject to change.

Sky News reported that other advisors would include Dick Olver, chairman of BAe Systems and Michael Queen, chief executive of 3i Group.

Earlier this month a few other names in the business advisory committee were announced.

They were Helen Alexander, president of the CBI; Sir James Dyson, founder of the eponymous manufacturing business; Justin King, chief executive of J Sainsbury; Sir Mike Rake, chairman of BT and easyJet; Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google; and Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP Group.

In total, there are likely to be nearly 20 members of the new group.

Mr Walsh and Mr Witty were both members of Brown’s Business Council for Britain, while Olver was among a group appointed by the former PM as “Business Ambassadors”.

Among the issues certain to dominate the agenda of the new group will be the continuing uncertainty about proposals to reform the corporate tax system.