Labor is closer to being a government-in-waiting than opinion polls suggest after a successful first day of party leadership in Davos.
British business magnates and bankers said Labor leader Keir Starmer and his shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, were impressed when they tried to show the opposition was “open for business”.

Starmer and Reeves met with executives and investors to explain their plans and find support. A senior banker who saw the party leader at a private breakfast attended by several executives on Thursday morning said the general impression was that he was “shocking”. Starmer was later introduced on the panel as Great Britain’s “next possible prime minister”.

Another business leader who asked not to be named said the free invitation to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting shows that the opinion makers who run Davos take the party seriously. They drew comparisons with invitations to senior Conservatives before they won the 2010 election.

The government has only sent a minimal delegation to Davos this year, with Business Secretary Grant Shapps and International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch taking over from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The two parties competed for the business vote, which turned out to be key to Labor’s victory in the 1997 election under Tony Blair.

‘Trust Discount’
The business community is frustrated with the Conservative government after a year of political turmoil that saw three prime ministers and four chancellors. There are no growth plans and the UK is lagging behind the US and Europe, they say.