Labour’s top investment summit is embroiled in a comedy of errors

The government’s main investment summit collapsed this weekend as foreign business leaders shunned the event amid embarrassing problems.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is rolling out the red carpet for tomorrow’s meeting of business and investment titans, including Larry Fink, boss of US investment group BlackRock. Her hope is that they will bring their money to Britain, creating prosperity and jobs.

But the conference risks being a flop, partly because of its budget later this month, which will include higher wealth taxes, including on capital gains, that companies say will deter investment and hinder growth.

The meeting at the Guildhall in the City was also dogged by a series of setbacks, including:

• Notable no-shows;
• Calling one of the world’s most prominent businessmen the wrong name;
• Unintentionally revealing contact details of more than 100 guests;
• Sending out-of-office responses to urgent questions from delegates;
• The minister responsible for foreign investment has just sold her company to American private equity;
• Not inviting Elon Musk after the technology mogul had a social media spat with the Prime Minister.

Ahead of the summit, a series of major investments in the UK energy sector were announced, including plans by Scottish Power’s Spanish owner Iberdrola to spend up to £24 billion over the next four years.

But the conference was dogged by incompetence and accidents. Jamie Dimon of Wall Street investment bank JP Morgan and Stephen Schwarzman of US buyout giant Blackstone are among the no-shows, while other CEOs hesitate.

Former Google boss Eric Schmidt will be there as a keynote speaker – but his name was listed on a media invite as ‘Ed’. And in particularly embarrassing timing for Labour, a row broke out with port company DP World on the eve of the event, after

The ministers attacked the employment practices of its subsidiary P&O Ferries.

Some delegates criticized the decision to hold an investment summit a fortnight before the budget.

“A number of major investors have postponed making a decision to invest in Britain until they see the budget,” said Marco Forgione, head of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade. Labor only launched its long-awaited industrial strategy just before the summit and also lacked an investment minister until the eleventh hour.

Darktrace co-founder Poppy Gustafsson was appointed to this role just four days before the event. She recently sold the cyber security company to a US private equity firm for £4.3 billion.

An email accidentally sent to a newspaper revealing details of the deputies added to the chaos.