Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves says Labor will ensure “success is celebrated”. Photo: Holly Adams/Bloomberg
Rachel Reeves finally made it to the top table this week. The shadow chancellor may only be a future finance minister, but she has been chosen to meet senior world leaders at a dinner hosted by the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Billed as a meeting to discuss Building Tomorrow's Europe, Reeves sat next to Canadian Finance Minister Chrystie Freeland and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo as they dined on marinated frisée salad and Swiss Gotthard pike perch.
Former Vice -British Prime Minister Nick Clegg and EU Trade Minister Valdis Dombrovskis were sent to neighboring tables with the world's elite.
The appearance was part of a three-day marathon of chatter in Davos, where Reeves and shadow business minister Jonathan Reynolds held dozens of meetings with global leaders including the CEOs of Exxon Mobil, Siemens Energy, Moderna, Uber, Novo Holdings, owner of Novo Nordisk, and Sequoia. Capital
The dinner was the first of several engagements for Reeves – she had to forego half-eaten chocolate pumpkin cake to have time to mingle with the likes of Sting, Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar and magician David Blaine, who spent the night performing magic tricks for billionaires and politicians alike
Reeves says the message she wants to convey is clear: the Labor Party has changed.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Reeves insisted that a Labor government would ensure “success is celebrated” as she even discussed the prospect of tax cuts for top earners.
“Last year it was about to introduce ourselves, especially to some international investors and global enterprises who have not met us before,” she said. “This year we will further develop these relationships and give more specificity to our plans.
“Because we changed the Labor Party, we now have the opportunity to change Britain. and say that we are proudly a pro-business party.”
That message was music to the ears of business leaders, many of whom queued to meet Reeves and Reynolds at Davos.
Simon Frickley, chief executive of Alix Partners, was one of those present who believes the Labor Party has turned the corner.
“I think all the concerns that were generally felt about [former Labor Party leader] Jeremy Corbyn don't apply to [Sir Keir] Starmer,” he said.
“I think businesses are feeling general optimism and confidence in the Labor Government because they are not intimidated by too many of the old Labor politicians, [and] I think this time too we will see a lot of business people voting for the Labor Party for the first time.”
< p>In contrast, few Davos attendees had encouraging words about Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party. While many avoid public comment, private executives are speaking negatively about the government after the chaos of the past few years.
“There's a joke going around now,” says a global bank executive. “If you have a computer that keeps asking you to change your password, all you have to do is select the name of the last Prime Minister of Great Britain.”
One American executive who frequently communicates with the White House and has met with Sunak offered a similarly unflattering view. Sunak's problem, he says, is that many people simply don't see him as prime minister.
“The Prime Minister comes across as someone who should be the Prime Minister's chief of staff. And his chief of staff [Liam Booth-Smith] comes across as someone who should be an assistant chief of staff. Just look at the way he dresses. The buttons on his shirt are always undone until they look aqua.”
It's not just Sunak's team's clothing choices that people pay attention to.
Many are simply fed up with the Tories, despite their promises to cut taxes.
Many are simply fed up with the Tories, despite their promises to cut taxes.
Many are simply fed up with the Tories, despite their promises to cut taxes.
Many are simply fed up with the Tories, despite their promises to cut taxes.
Many are simply fed up with the Tories, despite their promises to cut taxes.
p>
“We've had a government that's been in power for too long,” says the chairman of another global bank. “How many prime ministers have you had in three years? I think we need a flush. The question is how big a defeat will the Rishis be and can they bounce back, or will it be a 1997-style situation where the party is left in a political wilderness?
Perhaps the Davos elite have succeeded. were not conquered by Reeves and the Labor Party, but rather thrown into their arms by a Tory Party that many could no longer stand.
The main Tory representatives at Davos were Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, and Jeremy Hunt, who had to fly to Switzerland on a private jet to be able to vote on the final Rwanda bill and attend a breakfast hosted by KPMG and the City of London Corporation.
Hunt won't give up without a fight. Speaking to reporters last week, he insisted that Labor promises to cut taxes had no basis.
“Any party that says it has a confident ambition to increase spending by £28 billion a year can only plan to raise taxes. “, said the Chancellor.
” If you believe – as I believe, and almost every business person I meet here – that the way to create a dynamic, entrepreneurial, successful economy is to make our business tax rates competitive [and] lower taxes, only conservatives can do that. which open up such a perspective.”
Convincing or not, Sunak and Hunt have one hope: Starmer will alienate voters.
While many at Davos called Reeves personable, the best description of Sir Keir was that The Telegraph found “boringly competent.”
p>There is also the question of whether Labor can offer more than just warm words.
Reeves was invited to speak at an event called “Modern Supply-Side Economics,” to which almost no one showed up. Many believe the Labor Party still lacks ideas.
“So far they are saying the right things,” says one Swiss leader who has lived in Britain. “Labour's first term will never be a threat. You know, it's always the second term when Labor starts to get aggressive. And, you know, Labor.“
Can a leopard really change its spots?
The Shadow Business Secretary is understood to have reassured several business leaders that Labor wants to help attract more private investment into the UK, rather than “crowding it out” with huge levels of government spending.
Patrick of JP Morgan Thomson. which heads its asset management business in Europe, met with Hunt and Reeves this week. While the direction of travel is promising, he believes the question of the Labor Party is not yet decided.
“In government or shadow government, policy detail is key,” he says. “I talked to both of them and they both said that growth is really important, financial services are really important and we welcome that.
“We fundamentally believe that a growing economy with Productive Finance is everything it's talked about Rachel, makes a lot of sense.
“The main thing is really to see the details and understand what it really means. Is there a consistent policy in detail? [Do we have] clear regulation that gives investors confidence? All these things sound very trivial, but they are incredibly important.”
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