Gerry Grimstone, who has held senior positions at Barclays bank and fund manager Standard Life Aberdeen, has been appointed the UK’s investment minister ahead of a crucial period where the government will need to sell the country outside the EU.
The role replaces the trade minister position that had been held by Ian Livingston, former BT boss, and media executive Rona Fairhead. His remit will be to encourage investment into the UK from overseas institutions and sovereign wealth funds, and opening up new markets for trade.
Sir Gerry, one of the City’s best-known figures, will also help push the government’s agenda around “levelling up” the UK regions by bringing investment from overseas into key infrastructure projects that will probably cost tens of billions over the next decade.
The 70-year-old City grandee will also advise the government on how to foster British competitiveness after the UK emerges from the coronavirus crisis, which is expected to weigh heavily on many of the drivers of the UK’s economic growth.
According to the British Chambers of Commerce this week, UK export growth is expected to fall to its lowest level since 2009 amid a lack of clarity on the UK’s future trading relationship with the EU and other partners around the world.
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The role has been vacant since Lady Fairhead left in May 2019 amid talk that Theresa May would rush through a new appointment before she stood down for Boris Johnson. Lady Fairhead lasted less than two years in the role, but longer than her predecessors Mark Price, former managing director of Waitrose, and Lord Livingston, who each served about 17 months.
Sir Gerry started his career as a civil servant at the Treasury, working on privatisation for Margaret Thatcher, before taking on a series of high-profile City jobs. Most recently he was deputy chairman of Barclays and chairman of Standard Life Aberdeen, where he was seen as the driving force behind the £11bn merger of the two fund houses before he stood down last year.
His appointment will be welcomed by many in the City, given worries about the government putting Brexit priorities ahead of safeguarding the interests of the UK’s financial sector.
Many City companies want a high degree of equivalence with EU financial rules and guaranteed market access, although Brussels has already warned that this might not be possible unless the UK agrees with wider regulations set by the bloc.
Sir Gerry will be an unpaid minister jointly at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The role comes with a life peerage. He will also help push the government’s trade bill through the House of Lords.
Sir Gerry has held a number of government advisory roles, including in UK-China and UK-India relations, participating in prime ministerial visits and the annual dialogues between finance ministers. He chairs Standard Life Aberdeen’s insurance business in China. In India, he was on the board of HDFC Life, one of India’s largest life assurance companies, and serves as board adviser to the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, among other roles in the Gulf.
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