Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship investment summit has suffered another blunder after programming for the event called one of its most high-profile attendees the wrong name.
On an invitation for the summit at which Sir Keir hopes to woo foreign investors to plough cash into Britain, Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive and chairman, was named “Ed Schmidt”.
Mr Schmidt, who is worth $32.3bn (£24.7) and one of the world’s 100 richest people according to Bloomberg, is due to take part in a conversation with Sir Keir at the event on Monday.
The programme emailed to attendees said the 10:20 am to 10:50am slot at the summit, hosted at the City of London’s Guildhall, will feature the “PM in conversation with Ed Schmidt”.
Mr Schmidt was given an honorary knighthood in August by Sir Keir’s predecessor Rishi Sunak for services to philanthropy.
It is the latest slip-up by the Government after the owner of P&O Ferries, DP World, considered pulling out of the summit where it was due to announce a £1bn investment. Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, branded P&O Ferries a “rogue operator” and suggested customers boycott the company over its employment practices.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the company’s chief executive, will now attend the event after Sir Keir sought to distance himself from Ms Haigh’s comments saying they were “not the view of the Government”.
The Government has also struggled to recruit an investment minister with Poppy Gustafsson, a former protégé of Mike Lynch, only being appointed on Thursday, just days before the summit.
At the same time, business leaders have warned of increased uncertainty over Rachel Reeves’s tax raid plans ahead of her maiden Budget later this month.
The high profile attendees are expected to include David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, and Larry Fink, the boss of Blackrock.
However, there are some major no-shows, including Elon Musk, who was snubbed by the Prime Minister following a row over Britain’s policing of the Southport riots earlier this year.
The summit is seen as critical by the Government as it seeks ways to bring more money into the UK, particularly to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure and the energy industry, without further straining the public finances or adding to the £2.8 trillion national debt.