Before being elected to Parliament in 2010, Bill ran a training consultancy that worked with businesses of all sizes. In 2015, Bill joined the Shadow Frontbench where he currently holds two briefs - Business and International Trade.

For the Shadow Business team, he is Labour's spokesperson on SMEs, where he has highlighted the difficulties faced by small businesses such as late payments, including from Carillion, and the mistreatment of small firms by RBS during the 2008 financial crisis

For international trade, he has particularly discussed trade remedies and has spoken about the importance of ensuring British industries are able to trade without unfair competition from sub-standard foreign imports such as the widespread dumping of Chinese steel. He is playing a key role in holding the Government to account on the Trade Bill.