UK PM Keir Starmer touts pro-business agenda as he meets U.S. CEOs

The United Kingdom is pursuing investment from America’s biggest banks and tech giants, as the country looks to infuse growth in its stagnant economy. 

“We now have a Labour government whose number one priority is wealth creation,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin in an exclusive broadcast interview Thursday.

“We are a Labour party that is proud to say we are pro business just as much as we are pro worker.”

In July, Starmer became the first leader from the center-left Labour party to win a U.K. national election since Tony Blair — ending 14 years of Conservative rule. Since being elected, he has said his top priority is economic stability.

During his visit to New York City amid the United Nations General Assembly, Starmer met with business leaders including Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Microsoft President Brad Smith, and Blackstone President Jonathan Gray.

This week, Blackstone committed to investing $13 billion to build a data center in the northeast of England. The investment aims to create 4,000 jobs and lead to one of the largest data centers in Europe to power the surging demand for artificial intelligence.

“It’s a big signal of confidence,” Starmer told Sorkin about the deal. “It’s also in the northeast of England, which matters to us, because I want economic drive outside of London.”

Starmer said the industries in particular he’s working to attract investment in include renewables, artificial intelligence and life sciences. This call for investment comes as the Labour government is getting ready to unveil its budget plan in October, while dealing with a stagnant economy.

Starmer’s government, in the early days of its tenure, flagged a £22 billion ($29 billion) financing shortfall after his administration performed an audit. Former Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, for the Conservative Party, in July wrote to Simon Case, the head of the British civil service, labeling Labour’s claims about the public finances “deeply troubling.”

Starmer has, more recently, been accused of being too negative on the U.K economy, and Labour’s plans to ax the U.K.’s non-dom tax regime has also been criticized.

“We will stabilize the economy,” said Starmer Thursday. “There are going to be more hard decisions to be made when it comes to the budget.”

Earlier this week, Starmer’s plan to cut payments that offset fuel costs for pensioners was rejected by his own party in a symbolic vote at the Labour Party’s Annual Conference.

“No one wants to change the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. But by doing that, we stabilize the economy,”  Starmer told Sorkin.

“We can commit to what we call the triple lock, which means that they get more money year-on-year.” The U.K.’s “triple lock” is where the state pension rises each year by either 2.5%, the inflation rate, or earnings growth — whichever is highest.