Miliband’s ‘True Face of British Business,’ John Rose, Has Become Banker

The industrialist praised by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband as “the true face of British business” in a speech that said the U.K. needs “not financial engineering, but real engineering” has just become a banker.

John Rose, former chief executive officer of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, was appointed last week as deputy chairman of Rothschild Group, which ranks sixth in Europe this year in providing advice on mergers and acquisitions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Miliband told his party’s annual conference today in Liverpool, northwest England, that businesses could be divided between “producers,” which “do the right thing,” and “predators,” such as those involved in some company takeovers.

“Are you on the side of the wealth creators or the asset strippers? The producers or the predators?” Miliband asked. “Producers train, invest, invent, sell; things Britain does brilliantly, but not enough. Predators are just interested in the fast buck, taking what they can out of the business.”

Rose is “a great British business leader,” Miliband said, “creating wealth and keeping jobs in this country” when he was at Rolls-Royce, in contrast to Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive officer of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, which had to be bailed out by the previous Labour government.

“This was not an anti-banker speech,” Miliband’s office said in a statement after the leader’s address. “It was an anti-irresponsibility speech.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Penny in Liverpool, England, at tpenny@bloomberg.net; Robert Hutton in Liverpool, England, at rhutton1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net.