1674148603 UK Labor leader Starmer slams Prime Minister Davos non appearance and

UK Labor leader Starmer slams Prime Minister Davos’ non-appearance and touts new ‘inverse OPEC’ alliance

DAVOS, Switzerland – January 19, 2023: Labor Party leader Keir Starmer during a CNBC panel discussion on day three of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The leader of Britain’s opposition Labor party, Keir Starmer, on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for choosing not to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Speaking at a CNBC-moderated panel in Davos, Starmer said he had met with business leaders and policymakers to promote the idea of ​​a Clean Power Alliance should Labor win the next general election in 2024.

The international organization, which Starmer dubbed “reverse OPEC,” would seek to address the shared economic challenges of climate change, job creation from renewable energy and household energy bills.

“I think our Prime Minister should have turned up – I absolutely do. One of the things that has struck me since I’ve been here is the absence of the UK,” Starmer told the podium.

“So I think it’s really important that I’m here and that our shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is here as a declaration of intent that if there is a change of government, and I hope there is, the UK will, its will be part of the global stage in a way that I don’t think likely has been seen in recent years.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Sunak wasn’t the only world leader to skip the summit, as US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazil’s new President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were also absent.

UK Business and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps is in the Swiss Alps in Sunak’s absence and told CNBC on Thursday it was appropriate for him to attend as his role in government is to secure business investment and jobs for Britain

“[Sunak] There may well be another year to come, but right now, amidst the energy crisis caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with all the trauma we’ve been through with Covid, and more, he’s at home and focused – As a brand new prime minister, by the way, two or three months after taking office — on domestic priorities,” Shapps said.

“I’m here because technically I’m actually the right person for Davos.”

Sunak spent Thursday visiting Morecambe in north-west England as part of a series of trips to promote the “leveling” of his government’s funding.

“Inverse OPEC”

Labor has a massive poll lead over Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party ahead of the next general election, set for 2024. The latest Ipsos voting intention poll, released this week, gave Labor a 26-point lead with 49% of the vote versus the Conservatives’ 23%. .

Starmer pledged that if Labor takes power in Westminster in 2024, his government will work with the private sector in the UK, where renewable energy contracts are estimated to be nine times cheaper than oil and gas, to unlock job and innovation opportunities.

UK Business Secretary: Prime Minister Sunak is focused on domestic priorities at home

“The price here is huge in terms of energy security and it shouldn’t be something national. It’s in all of our interests to have energy security, it’s in all of our interests to make sure that Putin can’t weaponize energy in the world, be it now or at some point in the future,” Starmer said.

“There is of course an element that each country is trying to face this challenge itself, but there is also this element of mutual cooperation in relation to the mutual threats we face and so I am very interested in promoting this idea Develop the Clean Power Alliance, which is OPEC in reverse in the sense that the purpose is to bring those prices down globally.”

OPEC, or the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is a permanent intergovernmental alliance of 13 major oil-producing nations that negotiate adjustments in their respective production to maintain global oil price stability.