Yesterday (21 November) in Downing Street, senior executives from BlackRock, one of the world’s most controversial companies, sat down opposite Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.
The government’s laser-focus on private investment as the key means of driving economic growth has inevitably led to a reliance on the world’s big money machines, like BlackRock. But this is a relationship that Labour developed in opposition – and which has become even cosier since the party entered government, with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink making a star turn at Labour’s investment summit last month, and posing for pictures with the PM when Starmer visited New York in September. Senior BlackRock figures were there, too, when No 10 held a summer reception for business leaders, as we revealed previously.
‘On a personal note’
As Starmer’s cabinet ministers were appointed in July, hundreds of companies contacted them to offer their congratulations, pitch their value to the government, and request meetings. Inevitably, some had more success than others in obtaining access to their targets. And BlackRock was one of them.
