Kyle to pledge 'protection' for start-ups from foreign raids

The business secretary will this week pledge to "protect" fast-growing UK companies from overseas predators as he claims that the government's new industrial strategy is already delivering substantial gains for Britain's economy.

Paste BN has learnt that Peter Kyle will say at a gathering of bosses in Central London that the industrial strategy had generated billions of pounds in new investment commitments and created tens of thousands of jobs since its launch last summer.

His remarks will come days before he travels to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to promote a renewed wave of global investment in the UK.

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Britain's sluggish economic performance will, however, inevitably cloud discussions with foreign investors next week, with Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, also likely to face questions in Davos about the extent to which her budget has applied the brakes to new investment.

Whitehall insiders said the event on Tuesday evening would be attended from executives from companies including Alphabet, Barclays, BP, National Grid, Octopus Energy and Revolut.

A source close to Mr Kyle, who replaced Jonathan Reynolds as business secretary in the cabinet reshuffle last autumn, said: "The modern Industrial Strategy has delivered billions in new investment commitments and created tens of thousands of jobs since it launched - but this government is relentless in its pursuit of growth and knows we need to do more.

"The business secretary will use this event to set out his ambition on slashing red tape, removing burdensome legislation, and using the full financial power of our financial institutions to invest in frontier industries.

"We must protect promising start-ups from being swallowed up by foreign competitors, and we will do everything we can to ensure that the best British businesses invest here, scale here, and stay here."

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It was unclear what protection the government was considering to prevent foreign raids on Britain's most valuable start-ups, following a string of deals in recent times.

The ten-year industrial strategy promised to prioritise eight key areas of the economy, including defence, life sciences and advanced manufacturing.