As powerful politicians rub shoulders with wealthy business leaders in Davos, the UK Labour Party sent its two heavy hitters to court the financial elite — while Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stayed home.
(Bloomberg) — As powerful politicians rub shoulders with wealthy business leaders in Davos, the UK Labour Party sent its two heavy hitters to court the financial elite — while Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stayed home.
Labour leader Keir Starmer was joined by shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, and the leader made his view clear, telling a panel at the event: “Our prime minister should have showed up.”
Reeves doubled down shortly afterward, declaring that Labour was “proudly pro-business” in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “It’s really important for me and Keir to be here, to bang the drum for Britain and to say loud and clear — under a Labour government, Britain will very much be open for business,” Reeves said.
“There’s nothing that an incoming Labour government can achieve without business playing its part, creating the jobs and investment we want to see in Britain.”
Starmer told the panel that his visit was a “statement of intent,” pledging that under a Labour government “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 was in northern England on Thursday announcing a new tranche of so-called “levelling up” funding designed to equalize opportunities across the country.
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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, while 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.
To be sure, the government is represented in Davos by Business Secretary Grant Shapps and International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch. Shapps echoed Reeves in his own interview with Bloomberg TV, saying: “It’s important for any government, all governments to be pro-business.”
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But a slew of other cabinet ministers fanned out across Britain 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.
With Starmer building momentum and looking increasingly comfortable on the world stage, Sunak’s Tories may have less than 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 Reeves comments and context from first paragraph.)
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