The Conservative Foreign & Commonwealth Council (CFCC) met at the House of Lords on Monday 28th April under its new Chairman Catherine, Baroness Meyer. The two speakers, Gareth Davies MP and Max Bruckner were introduced to an animated room of CFCC members by Lady Meyer. Present also were Lord Taylor of Holbeach and Lord Howell of Guildford, former Chairman and President of CFCC respectively, who both also spoke.
Gareth Davies, MP for Grantham and Bourne (Grantham being renowned as the birth place of Margaret Thatcher) is the Shadow Financial Secretary, having been at the Treasury under Rishi Sunak, spoke first on the subject of the geopolitics of finance and financial influence. His interest is the topical subject of economic and infrastructural growth and he has been a proponent of the need for a British Development Bank, turbo- charging development finance and reforming the ‘modus operandi’ for venture capital investing. A coherent strategy is required and he spoke of the need for effective governance. A large subject for debate which attracted a number of questions both on the record and privately.
Max Bruckner, with over a decade of experience in foreign exchange, was invited to share his personal thoughts. His take on how markets view the UK - such as the pound's 2022 slide - offered a sharp insight into investors' views on the risks and opportunities of the UK.
Lord Taylor described the importance of wealth creators and businesses and Lord Howell, in a superb analysis, talked of the importance of the investment destinations for the huge pension fund pools. In an interesting statistic he revealed that over 90% of the UK economy was made up of Small Medium Sized Enterprises.
Catherine Meyer warmly thanked the two speakers and also Melissa Crawshay-Williams for the effort she had put in to ensure the success of the evening
William Knight
07.05.2025
