Guest list for investment summit kept secret over security fears
‘We’ve got planets coming into alignment, which is why the UK is looking such an attractive place to invest’
MINISTERS have refused to disclose the invite list for the upcoming Global Investment Summit over fears of a terrorist attack as the world’s elite descend on London.
The event, to be held at the Science Museum on Oct 19, will be hosted by the Prime Minister and supported by members of the Royal Family in an attempt to attract billions for green industries and showcase Britain as an investment destination after Brexit.
The Department for International Trade has invited up to 200 of the world’s leading investors to the summit but refused a Freedom of Information request from The Daily Telegraph for the list of guests on national security grounds. It said: “Although it may seem like harmless information, safeguarding national security is amongst the weightiest considerations in the FOI Act, and it cannot be set aside lightly.
“We consider that the information, in the wrong hands, may aide in a possible terrorist attack on the summit affecting the security of the event, further, affecting national security, and in addition, the safety of those in attendance including the public at large. This is on the basis that the information provides insight and useful information about future locations of those attending the Summit, which in the wrong hands could be used for hostile activity.”
Chinese investors are expected to be among the attendees, despite concerns over human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority, as well as a raft of deep-pocketed sovereign wealth funds.
Lord Grimstone, the minister for investment, said: “We’re coming out of Covid, touch wood, through the vaccination programme, Brexit uncertainty [is] finished, plus the policy environment at the moment – particularly anything to do with net zero, life sciences infrastructure – is so favourable. We’ve actually got a lot of planets coming into alignment, which is why the UK is looking such an attractive place to invest.”