Reeves says she would travel with P&O Ferries, despite cabinet minister's previous call for boycott
Reeves sat down with ITV News Business and Economics Editor Joel Hills.
The Chancellor says she would travel with P&O Ferries, after the government nearly lost a £1 billion investment from it's parent company over previous comments by a cabinet minister.
In an interview with ITV News at the government's International Investment Summit on Monday, Rachel Reeves refused to say whether the government apologised to DP World, but admitted "conversations happened at the weekend to encourage them to make that investment."
The logistics giant's planned investment announcement was put in jeopardy on Friday after news broke they were pulling the funding over calls by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh for a boycott of its subsidiary.
'Conservations happened to encourage them': Reeves refuses to say whether government apologised to DP World
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh described P&O Ferries as a “rogue operator” in an interview with ITV News on Wednesday, going further by saying she has been "boycotting" the company for years and would "encourage consumers to do the same".
Downing Street later distanced themselves from Haigh's comment, saying the calls for a boycott were "not the view of the government".
But ITV News also understands the comments made by Haigh alongside the announcement in which she called P&O Ferries "cowboy operators" were signed off by Downing Street.
The chancellor denied the move was a U-turn when pressed by ITV News Business and Economics Editor Joel Hills.
The wrangling over Haigh's comments comes two and a half years after P&O caused outrage by firing almost 800 seafarers and replacing them with cheaper foreign agency workers.
The company was paying some of them as little as £5 an hour and asking them to work up to 17 weeks without a day off.
Asked whether this new deal with DP World was a sign the Labour government will accept inward investment "from anyone, anywhere in the world", Reeves replied: "No, of course there will always be guard rails."
"There will always be guard rails": Reeves on foreign investment in UK
The chancellor did make clear that one of those boundaries was China - ruling out Chinese investment in new nuclear power and telecoms.
"China will not be having a stake in those businesses", she said.
Keen to stress the significance of the summit for the Labour government, Reeves insisted: "Today is an endorsement of what this government are doing, when the previous government held their last investment summit they only secured half of what we have."
Will the chancellor hike national insurance for employers?
With just over two weeks to go until the Budget, rumours have been swirling about whether the chancellor will hike national insurance contributions for employers.
Reeves wouldn't rule this out when speaking to ITV News, despite the Labour manifesto pledging not to increase national insurance, VAT or income tax.
The chancellor suggested any rise in employer NI contributions wouldn't be breaking the manifesto promise, because "it was very clear it's about taxes on working people."
There has also been speculation about an increase in capital gains tax in the Budget - which the PM addressed today saying a rumoured hike to 39% is "pretty wide of the mark."
“It’s getting to the area which is wide of the mark. But I’m not going to fuel the speculation because we can go on like this for a very long time until Budget day,” he said.
He added: “Everybody knows that until Budget day none of it is going to be revealed.”
Have you heard our podcast Talking Politics? Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode…