Boris Johnson’s New Priorities See the U.K. Boycott Davos
Boris Johnson will not attend the World Economic Forum in Davos next year, nor will any of his ministers, a U.K. official said.
(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson will not attend the World Economic Forum in Davos next year, nor will any of his ministers, a U.K. official said.
The prime minister won an 80-seat majority in last week’s election by promising to deliver on the priorities of ordinary British people, principally getting Britain out of the European Union Jan. 31.
He’s now branding his administration as “the people’s government,” an image that might be undermined by the sight of him or his team brushing shoulders with the global elite at a Swiss ski resort.
Johnson hasn’t always been against attending the summit. As Mayor of London he went at least twice, to urge attendees to invest in the U.K. capital.
“You just have to chuck a snowball into a cocktail party at Davos and you’d hit someone with a sovereign wealth fund who would fund a piece of infrastructure,” he told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper in 2013. The same year he described the gathering as “a great big constellation of egos involved in massive mutual orgies of adulation,” in an interview with the BBC.
He was also photographed enjoying a pizza with then-Prime Minister David Cameron on the eve of the release of disappointing economic data, an experience that showed the risks of attending the event.
Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, used Davos to promote Britain’s international face as it negotiated its withdrawal from the European Union, while chancellors of the exchequer have often addressed a lunch of British business leaders.
Domestic demands meant May didn’t go this year and nor did French President Emmanuel Macron -- though both sent representatives. President Donald Trump canceled the U.S. delegation’s trip this year amid a government shutdown.
Rupert Harrison, an adviser to David Cameron’s government and now a portfolio manager at BlackRock Inc., said on Twitter the decision not to attend is “ridiculous,” as there’s no other forum where the case for inward investment can be made “more efficiently.”
“Are they campaigning or governing?” he asked.
While Johnson was feted when he attended as mayor, it’s possible that in his new guise, as someone who’s been accused of putting up trade barriers as a result of Brexit, he might be less welcome at the summit.
It’s even possible some attendees might remember Johnson’s 2014 assurance to the Wall Street Journal, while attending Davos, that the chances of Britain leaving the EU were “vanishingly unlikely.”
--With assistance from Simon Kennedy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas Penny
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