The three big political parties went head to head today at the News Building in the first debate dedicated to business, run by The Sunday Times.

Vince Cable of the Liberal Democrats, Matthew Hancock of the Conservatives and Chuka Umunna of Labour pitched their parties' policies to an audience of 180 business leaders and Sunday Times readers at the breakfast debate chaired by Sunday Times Business Editor, Dominic O'Connell.

Cable opened ‘A Vote for Business’ by stressing the Lib Dem's record in the coalition of delivering a huge increase in apprenticeships, implementing the Vickers Report on banking reform and creating the strongest economic recovery of all the economies in the developing world since the 2008 crash. He said the key to long-term business growth was "productivity, productivity and productivity", but that his party was opposed to a referendum on EU membership which would lead to business uncertainty. They would also oppose ideological cuts proposed by his coalition partners.

Hancock followed and supported him on the coalition's successful apprenticeship drive pointing out that: "the increase in opportunities was more than the entire population of Munich". He said that whilst "business that is done right is a force for business", the recovery must be felt more widely across the population. However he stressed that the Tories will not do anything to put the economic recovery at risk and will back business all the way.

Departing from the mild consensus radiating from the coalition representatives on the podium Umunna addressed the issue that the average working Londoner was earning £3200 less than in 2010 and that new opportunities were inaccessible to many. To address both these issues and  support business he said Labour had four key priorities - investment in skills training; investment in infrastructure, with the establishment of an 'infrastructure commission'; investment in new homes to house workers; and ensure the United Kingdom remains in the EU.

On the EU Hancock said that trusting the UK population to decide on membership would deliver the certainty that business needed but that reform was vital to make its bureaucracy less burdensome on business. The Tories, he said, “would certainly aim to restrict freedom of movement of EU citizens purely to claim benefits”.

Cable strongly disagreed, stating that other EU members, especially Germany would react badly to any unilateralist approach by Britain. We should learn the lessons from the fall out of the 2014 Scottish Referendum - "A referendum would create years of uncertainty", he said.

They then discussed a range of issues from 'the City' to boardroom diversity. Cable admitted there were still problems around the banking sector with businesses still finding it hard to borrow the money they need to invest in growth.

Hancock agreed finance, for small business in particular, needed addressing which the Tories planned to through the trebling of start-up loans available in the next parliament.

Both Cable and Umunna said they were waiting to see how the current reforms proposed in the Vickers report worked through before deciding if further action was needed to be taken on British banks.

Finally a truly cross-party consensus evolved over greater representation of women in the boardroom with Hancock saying diverse boards lead to better decision making and Umunna adding they would also increase export trade.

The agreement on diversity being good for business was suitably summed up by Cable who said the most effective woman in his department is in fact two women who share the job which many in and outside of the department are unaware of as that arearuns so smoothly.