Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Labour’s investment summit is dead on arrival

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Next, it has been overshadowed by the looming Budget. The Government has spent much of its first 100 days talking about how dire its economic inheritance has been, how it will have to raise taxes on entrepreneurs and business. It has also been plotting extra rights for employees, and more power for the trade unions.

If it has given a single moment of thought to how to make the UK more attractive as a place to do business it has kept that to itself. In the end, many of the tax rises may not materialise, especially after the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility point out to the Chancellor that they won’t raise any money.

But that doesn’t mean the speculation won’t frighten people away. It would have been far better to hold the Budget first, but despite boasting endlessly about how she knows how to run the economy, and effusive plaudits from the likes of Mark Carney, that doesn’t appear to have occurred to Reeves.

Thirdly, this is not the right place for virtue-signalling. The Government pointedly did not invite Elon Musk to the summit, drawing a stinging rebuke from the entrepreneur.

Sure, it may not like his libertarian views or his support for Donald Trump, but Musk remains one of the world’s great tycoons, and whether it is Tesla, SpaceX or his new AI venture, he is someone who isn’t afraid to stake big bucks on his ideas. The UK should be welcoming people whatever their views, not using the summit to score cheap political points with Labour backbenchers.

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