(Bloomberg) -- Some Wall Street bosses are unlikely to attend a UK investor summit next month, dealing a setback to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s planned charm offensive aimed at luring billions of dollars to kick-start growth.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and Blackstone Inc. chief Steve Schwarzman are among those unable to make it to the international conference on Oct. 14 due to scheduling problems, according to people familiar with the matter.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, however, met Dimon in London this week to discuss the role that financial services firms can play in boosting the UK’s economic growth, one person said. She also met Schwarzman in New York last month.
The firms will send other senior executives instead, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal matters. Several CEOs, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon, will attend to show support for the UK’s new Labour government, according to several people. Other CEOs are also trying to work out ways to attend, other people said.
The UK needs about £1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) of investment over the next decade to put the economy on track to achieve 3% annual growth in real wages and real per capita GDP, according to a report by the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce. Starmer’s government is counting on the event to help bring in some of that money.
The government has signed up a string of large British businesses to participate, including HSBC Holdings Plc, Barclays Plc, Aviva Plc, Phoenix Group Holdings Plc, BT Group Plc, GSK Plc and Diageo Plc. However, the plans are still at an early stage and lack clarity about what the government will be able to announce, two people attending said.
The Department for Business and Trade announced last month it hoped to gather as many as 300 industry leaders to spur investment at the summit. A spokesman didn’t comment further.
Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s surprise decision to call an early election, which catapulted Labour into power months earlier than expected, has left the new administration just months to coordinate a series of high-profile events. Finalizing the investment summit has turned into a scramble, as many people in government and companies have been away for summer holidays, the people said.
The idea isn’t new. Inspired by President Emmanuel Macron’s “Choose France” business conferences, the Conservatives held such events in 2021 and 2023. They believed it’s viable only every few years, one person said. But the Labour government is considering hosting another investment summit next year, and potentially one every year, in a move that might be seen as too ambitious by the business world, another person said.
The venue for Labour’s event is being finalized. It had considered holding it outside of London in a bid to boost regional growth, but has decided to go for the capital partly to entice overseas investors, several people said.
It had considered Wembley stadium, the UK’s national football arena, but has discounted the venue. The Conservatives previously held summits involving the Royal palaces of Windsor and Hampton Court.
A large UK presence could be made into a virtue, several people said, as it would help amp the pro-business credentials Labour craves, and also its commitment to a close relationship with domestic companies.
Labour is also rushing to appoint an investment minister ahead of the event after the party’s first choice pulled out because the role would have required him to make costly changes to his own business ties, Bloomberg News reported earlier this week.
The event will come two weeks before Reeves delivers her first budget, when she may raise taxes on the wealthy.
--With assistance from Sabah Meddings and Philip Aldrick.
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