‘They’re everywhere’: Labour’s wooing of City goes into overdrive

Labour’s Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves – along with Jonathan Reynolds and Wes Streeting (not pictured) – are referred to by one corporate lobbyist as ‘the big four’. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/Stefan Rousseau / PA

Four years ago Labour was in the wilderness with business. Despite a “tea offensive” to woo City boardrooms before the 2019 general election, the party under Jeremy Corbyn was also bracing for its policies to spark a potential run on the pound if elected.

In the run-up to the next general election, the only stampede in the City is among executives scrambling to get close to Keir Starmer’s Labour, aiming to understand – and influence – its policies before an expected victory over Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives.