British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with business leaders, politicians, and investors during his visit to New York, where he attended the UN’s General Assembly meeting that gathered leaders from around the world.
In an interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, Starmer reiterated his administration’s agenda.
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“We now have a Labour government whose number one priority is wealth creation.” He emphasised he was “proud to say we are pro business just as much are pro worker.”
Starmer met with Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, City CEO Jane Fraser, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Blackstone President Jonathan Gray. The move strengthens one of the administration’s main messages to the world, that the UK is open for business and keen on foreign investment.
Notably, he also met with former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump for a two-hour dinner at Trump Tower following his UN speech. Starmer was unable to fix a time to meet Harris.
The decision to meet with Trump, given a meeting could not be arranged with the Democratic candidate, is indicative of Starmer’s initiative to be on good terms with his country’s biggest ally regardless of who ends up in the White House. The optics are predictably sobering for many, particularly given Labour politicians’ comments on Trump in the past.
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By GlobalDataForeign Secretary David Lammy, who attended the meeting, has called the former American President a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath.” Starmer has also expressed his disapproval of the controversial leader who became a convicted felon earlier this year.
A week after Starmer got into office, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves revealed there was a £22b “black hole” in the nation’s finances. This led to controversial suggestions to aid the situation, such as ending winter fuel payments for pensioners.
Earlier this week, Blackstone announced it would invest $13bn to build a data centre in the north of England. The $13.3b agreement was orchestrated by the UK’s Office for Investment and is set to establish the largest AI data centre in Europe. Of this, Starmer said it was a “big signal of confidence” and that the project’s location in the northeast of England “matters to us because I want economic drive outside of London.”
UK Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds went to Saudi Arabia recently to secure a trade deal with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The efforts come ahead of the government’s International Investment Summit in October, where Starmer will host 300 industry leaders “to catalyse investment in the UK.”
