A REPORT aiming to debunk political myths about how doing what businesses want is good for the economy has been published.

Titled The Mythology of Business, the report by the Institute for Employment Rights and the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class) addresses commonly held notions that businesses know best for a healthy economy.

The labour movement think tanks take on common assertions by business leaders such as their criticisms of “red tape” safety restrictions and how privatisation is sometimes necessary.

Such claims are used to deny proper rights for workers and to reduce the influence of working people in politics, the report found.

The report’s author David Whyte said: “If there is one thing business organisations are particularly good at, it is deceiving us into thinking that they are indispensable to a healthy and developed society.

“But the social contributions that businesses make are always surrounded by propaganda claims and myths that are swallowed too easily by politicians and repeated ad nauseam in the press.”