Writing off the super-rich's favourite ski resort is a slippery slope for Britain

Bashing Davos is a piece of cake. As the super-rich jet into the Swiss ski resort this week to rub shoulders at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), eyes will be rolling.

From the VIP partying to the private jets and the £32 hot dogs, mocking the “Davos Man” hot-footing it around this “schmoozathon” is all too easy. Money, power, greed – former shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s Davos speech “warning the global elite” in 2018 that their fun will soon be over must have written itself.

But that threat never came to pass and Davos is still going strong, with Labour insiders saying the plan is to replace the memory of McDonnell attacking the rich and “making a nuisance of himself” at the Swiss resort.

Eager to erase the Davos impression left by McDonnell, who was criticised at the time for staying in a hotel that allegedly cost £700 a night, pro-business Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves weren’t afraid to chug champagne with billionaires on the slopes last year.

Reeves has every intention of doing it all again in the coming days alongside shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds. Sources say the pair have been overwhelmed with requests for meetings and plan to divide and conquer. They are right to ensure that their diaries are jam-packed from the moment they step off the plane.

Davos has many flaws and often looks past its sell-by date, but it is not yet irrelevant. In an election year and at a time when Britain is desperate for more investment, this is a jamboree that could have huge consequences for the politicians who embrace it.

Rishi Sunak is steering clear of Davos for the second year in a row, leaving the schmoozing down to chancellor Jeremy Hunt; foreign secretary Lord David Cameron; and business secretary Kemi Badenoch, who after last year’s conference said in an interview that while Davos was once her idea of “hell”, it was useful to meet her counterparts all in one place “rather than spend six months flying around the world”.

Of course there is plenty to be sniffy about – the hypocrisy of those flying to a ski resort via private jet to debate climate change, the fact the mysterious virus spreading across China during the January 2020 summit largely went unnoticed by any forecasters, the pointlessness of giving those who already have the loudest voice a platform, and the embarrassment in some circles of being seen as a member of the elite.

Boris Johnson was so afraid of rubbing potential voters up the wrong way that he told ministers to boycott the event in 2019 as he fought to win back working class voters. That was short-sighted. As well as missing out on huge potential business opportunities, he’s assuming that voters would all scoff at the thought of a Swiss visit.

On the contrary, one LBC listener told the radio station last year that Sir Keir’s “masterstroke” delivery in Davos secured his vote while Sunak botched it at home. “There’s Keir Starmer talking, looking statesman-like in Davos and there’s Rishi Sunak sat in the back of his Range Rover doing a video on Instagram without his seatbelt on,” the listener said, referring to when Sunak’s attempt to promote his levelling-up agenda while in a moving car without a seatbelt on.

Politicians should now be ignoring any potential insults to take every chance to promote Britain. If that’s done over a glass of something expensive at a naff networking event, then who cares?

French president Emmanuel Macron is expected to be the only G7 leader attending this year’s event. When he told delegates at Davos in 2018 that “France is back,” people listened. Despite France’s strict labour laws, JP Morgan and others chose Paris as their post-Brexit EU base in the years that followed.

In a 124-page report into UK foreign direct investment published late last year, executives said they were fed up with chasing the UK’s revolving door of ministers and found it easier to do business in France because Macron picks up the phone, texts directly and rolls out the red carpet for them.

They unsurprisingly expressed frustration at the fact there has been seven business secretaries and seven chancellors since the 2015 election. The number of foreign direct investment projects in the UK has fallen sharply over the past few years, while investment as a share of GDP has consistently lagged other G7 nations.

The crisis-hit Confederation of British Industry (CBI), once considered Britain’s premier corporate lobbying group, will not be present at Davos this year.

Now is not the time to hide in the shadows. There will be plenty of Davos bashing over the next few days, and much of it will be fair. But let’s not forget that this is a key moment for politicians to promote the country to investors and influential leaders at a closely watched event.

A lot can get done with so many decision-makers in one place, with a FTSE 100 chief executive once telling this newspaper that they had 35 half-hour meetings at Davos over the course of three days. Many get-togethers this week will be full of hot air, but those who throw themselves into things could find something unexpected.

After all, Robert Louis Stevenson was relieved of his writer’s block while in Davos and wrote Treasure Island, while Thomas Mann was inspired to write The Magic Mountain after visiting his wife there. A lot can be said for a change of scene and an open mind. For some, writing this event off could be a slippery slope. Davos is down but not yet out.

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