The government’s flagship “single front door” for international finance, which was sold as a public-private partnership drawing in the City’s biggest firms, has no private sector staff involvement.
At its October 2025 launch, the Office for Investment: Financial Services was billed as “a public-private partnership” bringing together the OfI, HM Treasury, No10, the PRA, the FCA, the City of London Corporation, and “secondees from leading professional services firms.” Guido’s FOI Unit can reveal the private sector half never turned up…
As of last month the unit’s secondees were: two from the Treasury, two from the FCA, and two from the PRA. None from a professional services firm or the City of London Corporation…
The government repeatedly described the wider Office for Investment as “a joint unit of HM Treasury, the Department for Business and Trade, and Number 10.” Guido’s FOI Unit has found that No10 claims it has no involvement, and the Treasury pays nothing to its running costs…
Press releases at its launch claimed it could bring in £10 billion – the unit confirms it has no such target. Meanwhile Santander boss warns that the British tax regime on banks as making “no economic sense” with additional punitive levies and the threat of more bank taxes from Reeves, who is pitching to the left. No number of potemkin joint units could fix that damage…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”