UK chancellor to court investors in New York visit

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Rachel Reeves, chancellor, begins a three-day visit to New York and Toronto on Monday in an attempt to sell Britain as “a stable place to do business” following Labour’s election win last month.

The visit aims to drum up business ahead of an international investment summit that Sir Keir Starmer, prime minister, will host in mid-October to encourage investment as part of his growth strategy. 

Reeves said the summit would signal that the country was a “stable place to do business” and was seeking to reset its relationship with trading partners after recent political and economic turmoil in the UK.

However, Reeves’s visit takes place against a backdrop of violence in many UK cities over the weekend, with far right activists clashing with police, hardly helping to reinforce her “stability” message.  

The global investment summit on October 14 will gather 300 business leaders and will be attended by Starmer and several of his cabinet including Reeves and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds. 

“The summit is an opportunity to meaningfully engage with the world’s leading businesses and investors, and to continue to build long-term relationships that will drive investment into the UK,” Reynolds said. 

“The chaos of the last 14 years is no more. Britain is open for business, and we are the investment destination of choice.” 

Jeremy Hunt, shadow chancellor, insists Labour was handed a benign economic inheritance.

Reeves and Reynolds fronted a “smoked salmon offensive” in opposition as they hosted executives representing the UK’s FTSE 350 of large companies at breakfasts in the City of London. 

The government’s National Wealth Fund has been allocated £7.3bn to invest in areas such as green steel and gigafactories to decarbonise heavy industry while aiming to attract an estimated £20bn in private investment. 

“I’ve wasted no time in my first month in office in taking the difficult decisions necessary to fix the foundations of our economy, so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off,” Reeves said. “There is no credible plan for growth without private sector investment.”

In Toronto, the chancellor will meet investors in clean energy and infrastructure. Starmer has talked about making Britain a “clean energy superpower”.

The international investment summit takes place two weeks before Reeves delivers her first Budget on October 30, a fiscal event at which she has admitted she will increase taxes and look for more spending cuts.

Attracting foreign direct investment into Britain and trying to raise the country’s growth rate is Starmer’s priority, as he tries to get the country out of what he calls a “doom loop” of low growth and high taxes.