Labour woos big business in Davos but the rip off was on full display

Davos refers to the World Economic Forum, which meets annually in January. Multinational corporations, usually with a turnover of at least five billion dollars, fund it as members at a fee of £52,000. So of course the Labour Party government was there this year.

Davos and inequality

Unless your a member, costs of attendance for those invited can exceed £250,000 with items like a hot dog costing $43. Is this the place that’s going to solve key global issues such as spiralling inequality? Not long before Davos, Oxfam released figures on the scale of billionaire riches as of 2024. It found that last year global billionaire wealth increased by $2 trillion. Oxfam argues that “extreme billionaire wealth is largely unmerited” partly because 60% of their wealth is either inherited, from monopolies or from crony connections.

Labour’s Rachel Reeves cosies up

Rather than tackling this, Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves is at Davos making yet more concessions to big business. She said:

We have been listening to the concerns that have been raised by the non-dom community.

As such, she has relaxed some rules of the transitionary period for ending non-dom super rich tax breaks in the UK. That’s after the corporate media made noise about the super rich planning to leave the country. But Tax Justice Network has documented that just 0.01% of super rich households relocated after Norway, Sweden, and Denmark introduced increased wealth tax reforms. And Reeves hasn’t introduced any, but is continuing the Tories’ plan of ending non dom status.

Davos and the climate

Another issue Davos seems unlikely to solve is the climate crisis. At the event, Reeves and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds met leaders of banks such as Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and Barclays. It’s seven years since the Paris climate agreement was adopted.

Yet the world’s 60 largest private banks have invested $6.9 trillion in fossil fuels since then. And Lloyds, Barclays, and HSBC have all maintained large investments in planet-destroying carbon energy. On top of that, Reeves said at Davos that her plan for growth supersedes the climate emergency. That’s shocking, but unfortunately unsurprising.

In a further attempt to woo big business, Starmer has announced he will block legal challenges to infrastructure projects (that should be publicly-owned rather than for-profit, anyway). Niall Toru, senior lawyer at Friends of the Earth, rubbished Starmer’s right-wing chest beating:

No one is above the law, not even the government. Friends of the Earth only brings cases we think are strong and necessary to protect people and nature from unlawful harm – and considering our string of recent legal wins, so do the courts. It is deeply concerning that Labour is attempting to scapegoat claimants. If ministers don’t want to be challenged in the courts, they should act within the law, because already cases aren’t allowed to proceed unless they have merit.

We see you, Labour

It was two years ago when Starmer made his position clear that he opts for the super rich over representative democracy. In January 2023, Emily Maitlis asked Labour Party leader Keir Starmer: