Labour hires Carney to help unlock billions in investment

LABOUR has hired the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney and the boss of Barclays to help unlock billions of pounds in private investment after it was forced to abandon its £28bn green spending pledge.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has appointed some of Britain’s most senior business leaders for advice on raising private investment through its proposed National Wealth Fund.

Ms Reeves has been forced to find new ways of paying for Labour’s spending promises after Jeremy Hunt used his Budget to scrap the non-dom tax regime, a key Labour pledge, and put the money on a national insurance cut.

Labour has since ruled out a tax on the wealthy to plug the funding gap for its manifesto pledges.

Speaking on the BBC’S Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Reeves said everything in Labour’s manifesto will be “fully costed and fully funded”, adding that the party is scrutinising the Government’s Budget documents to identify extra sources of cash.

She said she is “under no illusions” about the public spending challenge she would face, but declined to rule out real-term cuts to government spending.

She said: “I have to be honest that we’re not going to be able to turn things around straight away. But we will get to work on all of that.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer last month abandoned his flagship pledge to spend £28bn on green investment each year, blaming the UK’S poor finances.

The Labour party leader slashed the clean energy policy to just £4.7bn per year, but kept plans to invest £7.3bn in a National Wealth Fund to help create jobs in a zero-carbon economy.

This includes investment in carbon capture and storage, floating offshore wind farms and green steel across Britain, creating thousands of jobs.

The party has promised that each £1 of public money will be backed-up by £3 of private sector investment.

Ms Reeves’ advisory committee includes Mr Carney and the chief executive of Barclays, C S Venkatakrishnan, The Sunday Times first reported.

They are joined by Carol Young, the chief executive of USS, the UK’S largest private pension scheme, plus executives from investment companies Equitix and Brunel Pension Partnership.

Over the next three months, the task force will consult private investors and outline recommendations on how to establish the national wealth fund, including ways of attracting investment and developing future projects.

The committee will be chaired by Rhian-mari Thomas, a former Barclays banker and currently chief executive of the investment firm Green Finance Institute.