Labour’s vaunted International Investment Summit is losing steam before it even starts. Rayner and Haigh have put their foot in it…
Dubai-based DP World, which owns P&O Ferries, has paused plans to invest a whopping £1 billion in its London Gateway container port after getting heated criticism from Labour cabinet ministers. Haigh and Rayner have called P&O a “rogue operator” in a press release which accused its hiring of foreign workers as a “national scandal.” Released right before the big summit’s kick off on Sunday – no wonder Rayner has been snubbed from hosting it…
Downing Street says the summit will act as a “reset” after a disastrous first 100 days. DP World’s chairman Ahmed bin Sulayem will now miss the event and pull the £1 billion. How’s “letting the cabinet ministers do their own thing” going then, Keir?
UPDATE: Labour tries to save the situation by saying its official press release of two days ago doesn’t “reflect the government view.” Uh-huh…
UPDATE II: DP World now says it will show up to the summit after Starmer repeatedly slapped down his own Deputy PM and Transport Secretary’s words in an official government press release.
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”