As powerful politicians rub shoulders with wealthy business leaders in Davos, the person bearing the message that the UK is open for business isn’t Prime Minister Rishi Sunak but the man who wants his job — Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, and he has a message for Sunak, too.
(Bloomberg) — As powerful politicians rub shoulders with wealthy business leaders in Davos, the person bearing the message that the UK is open for business isn’t Prime Minister Rishi Sunak but the man who wants his job — Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, and he has a message for Sunak, too.
“Our prime minister should have showed up,” Starmer told a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. “It’s important I’m here… as a statement of intent that should there be a change of government… that the UK will play its part on the global stage in a way it probably hasn’t in recent years.”
Sunak — a multimillionaire whose opponents have attempted to paint as unable to relate to ordinary Britons — chose to avoid the optics of a trip to Davos, especially at a time when the UK is struggling with a record squeeze on living standards. Instead, he’ll be in northern England on Thursday announcing a new tranche of so-called levelling up funding designed to equalize opportunities across the country.
It’s a reversal of the roles traditionally associated with the UK’s two leading political parties — and one which Starmer will hope to consolidate — two years at most from the next general election. Labour leads by more than 20 points in the polls, and Sunak has spent his first few months in office trying to clean up the mess left by his predecessors after a year of unprecedented political upheaval within the ruling Conservatives.
Starmer and his finance spokeswoman, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, are in the Swiss resort to send a “clear message” that they’re committed to attracting more business investment to the UK, particularly when it comes to green industries of the future, they said in a statement.
“With Labour in government, Britain will be open for business,” Reeves said. “We have the ambition and the practical ideas to have our country lead on the global stage again, especially in those green industries of the future that are so vital for our energy security.”
Starmer and Reeves separately told the Financial Times that they would use their trip to Davos to rebuild the UK economy “on the rock of fiscal and financial responsibility” and closer trade ties with Europe. “We have to be clear that we want a closer trading relationship with the EU,” Starmer told the FT.
To be sure, the government is represented in Davos by Business Secretary Grant Shapps and International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch. But a slew of other cabinet ministers will fan out across Britain today to help Sunak publicize the regional funding — designed to deliver on the party’s 2019 electoral promise under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “level up” opportunities nationwide.
But with Starmer building momentum and looking increasingly comfortable on the world stage, Sunak’s Tories may only have two more years to deliver on that pledge.
Starmer, meanwhile, has focused on repairing relations with British business after they were badly damaged by his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, a product of the party’s left wing. Last month, Reeves told a conference attended by 350 executives that “Labour is back in business,” while corporate leaders have responded, saying they’re prepared to work with the opposition party.
(Updates with Starmer comments in second paragraph.)
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