Elon Musk will be welcomed at a future UK investment summit if he has investment plans the UK could bid on, a cabinet minister said ahead of a major business event in London.
The comments come after a group of private equity firms, insurance companies and technology companies joined forces with the big five banks to write a joint letter saying “Now is the time to invest in Britain”, prompting Keir Starmer. He inaugurated the event on Monday.
Kasturi was reacting angrily following reports that he had not been invited to the summit, controversial comments about the summer riots, in which the tech and aerospace billionaire said civil war in the UK was “inevitable” and made a series of false claims about disorder.
But Peter Kyle, the science and technology secretary, said Musk was not banned – his companies were not currently offering investment streams that the UK could bid on.
“Elon Musk has never been to events like this under any government,” Kyle told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
“We invite people who are already open to investing and have investment plans to come to this summit. If Elon Musk had an open investment plan, he would have been very welcome.
“There are a lot of businesses, great businesses that we want to work with, and Elon Musk is one of them – when he has an open and viable investment plan.
“If Elon Musk wants to open an investment program and it has global competition, we want to engage with him. Trust me, we'll be first in line, and I'll be first in line, knocking on his door to try to get that investment here.
In an earlier interview on BBC One's Breakfast, Kyle praised Musk's SpaceX company's achievement. A pair of robotic arms on Sunday grabbed the booster stage from its starship rocket.
“To watch that booster rocket come back down to Earth, I was watching in slack-jawed amazement at his astonishing feat yesterday,” Kyle said.
While the formation of the summit has seen some controversy, including particularly with the Dubai-based owner of an abrasive line P&O Ferries over its employment practices, the letter co-signed by the banks will be welcomed by ministers.
The 14 signatories to the letter include JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi and UBS, as well as insurers Aviva and L&G, private equity firms Blackstone and KKR and several technology companies.
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The firms said the already attractive investment climate in the UK had been boosted by greater political stability: “We remain optimistic about the future of the economy and believe now is the time to invest in Britain.”
In his keynote address, Starmer promises to cut red tape and “remove bureaucracy that is holding back investment”.
“To move our country forward, we need to look at regulations that unnecessarily hold back investment,” he says.
“Wherever building houses, datacenters, warehouses, grid connectors, roads, rail lines is holding us back, you name it, then mark my words – we'll get rid of it. We will remove the bureaucracy that stifles investment and we will ensure that every regulator in this country takes development as seriously as this chamber.
Asked if it was like being less regulated, he said: “It's different. You don't have to cut corners to get innovation through the regulatory landscape.
