Will Labour keep its promise not to hike National Insurance?

Despite getting off to a rocky start – including nearly losing £1 billion worth of investment – Labour’s much-anticipated Investment Summit seems to be delivering exactly what ministers had hoped for. The good news, including a combined investment of £6.3 billion from four US technology firms to expand data-centre infrastructure in Britain – is rolling in.

Business is struck, perhaps awestruck, by Labour’s commitment to slash red tape. During a panel event with the Prime Minister and ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the tech guru expressed how ‘shocked’ he was to learn that Labour was now ‘strongly in favour of growth’. Keir Starmer replied by insisting that ‘wealth creation is the number one mission of a Labour government’. Meanwhile, the chief executive of the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly commended the government on its ambition to cut regulation and go for growth: a move the company says Britain ‘needs to be quite different to make it interesting’ for investment.