Over the last one hundred days of the Labour government, we have been promised that the prime minister’s priority has been growing the economy and leading Britain to global economic prosperity. However, can the Labour Party balance private investors and the working people Starmer pledged to support and protect during the election campaign?
This question follows a controversy within Keir Starmer’s own cabinet office, as Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has publicly stated that she is boycotting P&O cruises following the company’s actions in 2022, when 800 employees were fired via a pre-recorded Zoom call only for the company to re-hire cheaper agency workers. Haigh branding P&O a “rogue operator” is not a breach from the party line, since Keir Starmer and his then shadow cabinet condemned the actions of the cruise company back in 2022 and have continued with their criticisms in the form of the Employment Rights Bill, which prevents companies like P&O from continuing in their “firing and re-hiring” policies.
The tension between the transport secretary and No. 10 is due to the private investment summit Starmer is holding in an attempt to draw private investment into the UK economy where, unbeknownst to ministers, P&O’s parent company DP World was attending. The Dubai-based conglomerate threatened to withhold an investment of £1 billion due to Haigh’s comments, however, Starmer has reassured investors that those “were not the view of the government” and DP World went ahead with the summit.
This debacle raises the question: Can Labour successfully sweet-talk private companies to invest in the UK by cutting red tape and continuing to support the environment and the regulations and protections workers currently enjoy? The other question is how the chancellor’s budget is going to impact the government’s relationship with the private sector, as rumours are swirling over tax rises; for instance, the rumour that national insurance contributions for employers will increase in an attempt to both narrowly keep Labour’s manifesto promise, while also filling the £40 billion black hole which the treasury claims was left by the previous Conservative government.
Reeves is attempting to assist Starmer in their joint approach to bringing investment into the economy, along with the new National Wealth Fund, Reeves is supposedly redefining the law around national debt to increase borrowing specifically into infrastructure this country desperately needs.
Speculation, however, can only go so far, as the budget will remain completely confidential, to maintain stability in the markets, until Reeves announces the budget to parliament in the first labour budget in 15 years and the first-ever budget delivered by a female chancellor of the exchequer. This leaves us with the question, will labour be able to balance on the knife edge that is workers’ rights and private investment?