The federal government needed to “have a conversation” with a purpose to safe the landmark DP World funding announcement that was reportedly derailed by feedback from the transport secretary.
Showing on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Enterprise and Commerce Secretary Jonathan Reynolds was requested how shut the federal government got here to dropping the £1bn dedication within the London Gateway port.
Mr Reynolds mentioned: “Look, we’ve had to have a conversation following some of the press reports.”
Politics newest: Minister quizzed on why Musk isn’t invited to funding summit
The £1bn pledge by the Dubai-based agency DP World – which owns P&O Ferries – was thrown into jeopardy after Transport Secretary Louise Haigh branded the transport firm a “rogue operator” and mentioned customers ought to boycott it.
In March 2022, P&O Ferries precipitated large controversy by sacking 800 British seafarers and changing them with cheaper, largely international employees, a transfer it mentioned was required to forestall the corporate from collapsing.
Picture:DP World is now set to go forward with a £1bn dedication within the London Gateway port. Pic: PA
Requested if the announcement – set to be the landmark pledge of the approaching week’s funding summit – was virtually pulled, Mr Reynolds would solely say that it’s now “going ahead”.
The minister was additionally questioned about why Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk was not going to be current on the authorities’s funding summit.
Picture:Elon Musk not too long ago spoke at a Donald Trump rally. Pic: AP
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2:24‘Why didn’t you invite Elon Musk?’
Pushed repeatedly concerning the motive for the world’s richest man’s non-attendance, Mr Reynolds mentioned he wouldn’t touch upon a “specific person”, however mentioned the gathering was about “who can bring the kind of investments that will make the biggest difference” – earlier than including that “not everyone can come”.
The funding summit was introduced in August, though it’s timing has been questioned as a result of it going down earlier than the funds on 30 October.
Whereas in opposition, Labour pledged to carry the occasion throughout the first 100 days of presidency – forcing their hand on the sequence of occasions after that deadline fell on Saturday.
When the summit was confirmed, the federal government claimed “up to 300 industry leaders” can be concerned to “catalyse investment in the UK”.
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Reviews over the summer season steered that Musk was not invited as a result of his controversial social media posts.
Throughout the riots within the UK within the wake of the Southport stabbings, Musk often criticised Sir Keir Starmer on the billionaire’s social media platform X.
